Classified expense provisions of the Russian budget in 2023 have now exceeded 3 trillion rubles (€34.77 billion), The Bell tally based on open-source data shows.
In total, the Russian budget’s expenditure in 2023 stands at 11.9 trillion rubles (€138 billion), while only 8.8 trillion rubles (€102 billion) worth of expenses are broken down into specific categories. The outstanding 3.1 trillion rubles (€36 billion) is classified expenses, The Bell notes.
Most of the confidential budget expense articles cover defence, national security and law enforcement. However, there are now also expenses indirectly related to the Ukraine war, economist Alexandra Osmolovskaya-Suslina told Bloomberg. In particular, these expenses can include funds allocated to the Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine.
The “secret” items in the budget accounted for almost a third of the total budget expenditures back in March already. Now, as analysed by The Bell, this share has dropped to 26%, but in absolute figures this number is still ranked first.
In particular, the government spent the most on social policies (which includes, for example, pensions: 2.9 trillion rubles or €33.6 billion), national economy (1.09 trillion rubles or €12.6 billion) and unclassified national defence spending (804.2 billion rubles or €9.3 billion).
According to the outlet, the 2023 budget expenses are 1.5 trillion rubles (€17.4 billion) higher than in January-May last year and 3 trillion rubles (€34.7 billion) more compared to the same period in 2021.
