In a June 2023 report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) assessed that russia’s military spending budget for 2023 is around 6.6 trillion rubles ($85.8bn), the UK Defense Intelligence reports.
In addition, russia almost certainly faces extra direct budgetary defense costs due to the war, including security expenses in the temporarily occupied regions and defensive measures in regions bordering Ukraine.
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This equates to about 4.4% of russian GDP compared with 3.6% in 2021, before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to the UK Defense Intelligence, although only part of the defense budget is spent on the war in Ukraine, the increase in spending highlights the cost of russia’s activity in Ukraine.
Russia’s true military expenditure remains uncertain due to a lack of transparency, including the use of classified budget lines, which account for approximately 22% of the russian Government’s total budget.
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