Russia's military budget has nearly quadrupled compared to 2021 – intelligence

Russia's military budget has increased almost fourfold compared to 2021, consuming resources needed for long-term economic growth.

According to Ukrinform, the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service (SZR) stated this on its website.

According to intelligence data, military expenditures from Russia's federal budget in January–September 2025 reached a new historical high of RUB 11.854 trillion. This is 30% (RUB 2.763 trillion) higher than the same period last year. Compared to 2023, the military budget increased by 95%, from 2022 – by 173%, and from 2021 – by 295%, nearly quadrupling.

"The price of the 'special military operation' is 1.32 trillion rubles per month, or 43.4 billion per day, or 1.9 billion rubles per hour," SZR noted.

Currently, the Kremlin directs 44% of all federal tax revenues and 39% of total federal expenditures to fund the war.

The total cost of the war against Ukraine for Russian taxpayers has reached RUB 42.343 trillion, or approximately $542 billion.

According to SZR, this is equivalent to 24 annual budgets of Russia's entire higher education system, 22 years of federal healthcare spending, and nearly 80 annual budgets of large regions such as Sverdlovsk Oblast (RUB 530 billion) or Krasnodar Krai (RUB 600 billion). Intelligence emphasized that despite the increase in defense production, Russia's military-industrial complex remains structurally similar to the Soviet model – it consumes resources but does not generate economic returns.

"Current dynamics show that the Russian military-industrial complex is turning into a classic 'black hole' for the budget, displacing civilian investment, limiting technological development, and cementing a model in which military spending generates not growth but chronic fiscal risks," SZR noted.

This imbalance, the intelligence service stressed, indicates that the Russian economy is moving not according to industrial development or modernization logic, but according to the logic of sustaining the military budget, which increasingly consumes resources necessary for long-term economic growth.

As Ukrinform reported, the Central Bank of Russia has, for the first time, begun direct sales of gold from its reserves on the domestic market, providing access to banks, state companies, and select investment entities.