Russian federal budget spending on military items reached a new record of RUB 11.85 trillion (about US$149.4 billion) between January and September 2025.

Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet, citing calculations by Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, based on data from Russia's Finance Ministry

Details: Military and weapons-production spending increased by a further 30% – or RUB 2.76 trillion (about US$34.8 billion) – compared with the same period last year. Russia's military budget is now 95% higher than in 2023, 173% higher than in 2022, and 295% (almost fourfold) higher than in 2021.

On average, the Kremlin's military machine consumed RUB 1.32 trillion (about US$16.6 billion) per month, RUB 43.4 billion (about US$547 million) per day or RUB 1.9 billion (about US$24 million) per hour.

The Kremlin spent 44% of all federal tax revenues and 39% of total federal expenditure on the war – both figures also record highs. For comparison: last year these shares were 39% and 36% respectively, and in 2021 only 18.4% and 19%.

According to Kluge's calculations, the war against Ukraine has cost Russian taxpayers RUB 42.34 trillion (US$542 billion) since early 2022.

This is equivalent to 24 annual budgets for Russia's entire higher-education system, 22 years of federal healthcare spending and nearly 80 annual budgets of large and wealthy regions such as Sverdlovsk Oblast (RUB 530 billion or US$6.6 billion) or Krasnodar Krai (RUB 600 billion or US$7.5 billion).

Background:

• Russia's Finance Ministry estimated a budget deficit of up to RUB 3.8 trillion (about US$48 billion) for the first nine months of 2025.
• The State Duma (Russian parliament) has approved amendments to the budget that include this deficit.

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