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Moscow to boost military spending by nearly 70% from last year, budget shows

29 September 2023 00:26 (UTC +04:00)

Moscow is set to boost its military spending, with the Kremlin citing the need to increase budgets because of what it described as an ongoing "hybrid war" that the government says is allegedly being waged against Russia, APA reports citing CNN.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov made comments about the increase on Thursday, following the release of the Russian finance ministry's draft budget for 2024, which indicated a 68% surge in defense expenditures compared to 2023.

The ministry proposed to allocate up to 10.77 trillion rubles ($111.04 billion) on "national defense," which is almost 70% more than last year.

Asked to comment during a conference call Thursday, Peskov said, "It is obvious that such an increase is absolutely necessary because we live in a state of hybrid war, we continue the special military operation. I mean the hybrid war that has been waged against us. And this requires high costs."

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov highlighted the budget's primary focus on military spending when asked about the priorities of Russia's budget for 2024 at a financial forum in Moscow on Thursday.

"The structure of the budget shows that the main emphasis is on ensuring our victory — the army, defense capabilities, armed forces, fighters — everything necessary for the front, everything necessary for victory is in the budget," Siluanov said.

"This is a significant strain on our budget. But this is definitely our priority," he added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the United States and other allies providing Ukraine with assistance of being “directly at war” with Russia.