Russia hikes national defence spending by 25% in 2025
(Corrects the number in headline and lead to 25% from 23%)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian state spending on national defence will increase by 25% in 2025 to 13.5 trillion roubles ($145.32 billion) from 10.8 trillion roubles in 2024, draft state budget documents published on Monday showed.
Defence spending will account for 32% of total budget expenditure in 2025 – which will be 41.5 trillion roubles.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov earlier said that the needs of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine and support for the military would remain the budget priority.
Defence spending is expected to drop to 12.8 trillion roubles in 2026. About 10% of total defence spending will go to military personnel payments.
($1 = 92.9000 roubles)
(Reporting by Darya Korsunskaya, writing by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)