The Russian parliament has passed a budget for 2024 that increases military spending to more than a third of total state expenditures.
This was reported by The Kyiv Independent, citing the independent Russian media company Meduza. Along with the funds for domestic law enforcement agencies, the share increases to 40%. According to Meduza, state spending on the Russian military sector will exceed social spending for the first time. The budget has passed all necessary steps to come into force, except for one, and only requires the signature of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Since the first draft of the budget plan, 900 amendments have been made, Meduza writes, with an additional 725 billion rubles (8.2 billion dollars) provided for the country’s military sector in the second draft.
To finance the increased military spending, Russia needs higher revenues. To fund the first draft of the budget, which was smaller than the final version passed, state revenues would reportedly need to be 22% higher from 2023. The Russian government is considering tax increases to bridge this gap, according to sources cited by Meduza.
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Image: kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Putin Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly (2018-03-01) 16.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons (Image size changed)
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