Russia decided to increase planned war spending for 2027 in response to Ukrainian strikes on refineries and warehouses, the newsletter Vlast reports

Filed 2h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

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Aunt Tagonist

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Bill Nye (?) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Russia's draft 2027 budget sets defense spending at 17.1 trillion rubles, or 6.9% of projected GDP, with an official telling the Vlast newsletter that Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries and warehouses this spring and summer shaped the increase. To pay for it, authorities plan higher taxes and more debt alongside cuts to social spending, health care, education and investment.

Bloomberg's analysis of the budget suggests Russia is preparing for a war that lasts years and is also angling to pressure Kyiv's European backers into withdrawing support. Military spending for 2026 already rose 30% year over year through the first half, reaching 4.7% of projected GDP, with Meduza's military analyst noting the new 2027 figure may actually represent an attempt to budget below that pace.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Nothing clarifies a government's priorities like watching health care and education get trimmed so the tank budget can grow. Calling a bigger war chest a hedge against 'below 2026 levels' is the kind of math that only works if you're the one holding the calculator. A country planning years more of this isn't bluffing about its patience, whatever it's telling its own pensioners.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Aunt Tagonist · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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