Russian federal budget spending on military items reached a new record of 11.85 trillion rubles (approximately $149.4 billion) between January and September 2025, according to calculations by a German defense analyst based on Russian Finance Ministry data.

The figures, calculated by Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, were reported by The Moscow Times on December 11.

30% increase over last year

Military and weapons-production spending increased by 30 percent—or 2.76 trillion rubles (about $34.8 billion)—compared with the same period in 2024.

Russia’s military budget is now 95 percent higher than in 2023, 173 percent higher than in 2022, and 295 percent (almost fourfold) higher than in 2021, according to Kluge’s analysis.

On average, the Kremlin’s military machine consumed 1.32 trillion rubles (about $16.6 billion) per month, 43.4 billion rubles (about $547 million) per day, or 1.9 billion rubles (about $24 million) per hour.

Record share of budget

The Kremlin spent 44 percent of all federal tax revenues and 39 percent of total federal expenditure on the war—both figures representing record highs.

For comparison, last year these shares were 39 percent and 36 percent respectively. In 2021, before the full-scale invasion, only 18.4 percent of tax revenues and 19 percent of expenditure went to military purposes.

According to Kluge’s calculations, the war against Ukraine has cost Russian taxpayers 42.34 trillion rubles ($542 billion) since early 2022.

Comparative context

The total war spending is equivalent to:

• 24 annual budgets for Russia’s entire higher-education system
• 22 years of federal healthcare spending
• Nearly 80 annual budgets of large and wealthy regions such as Sverdlovsk Oblast (530 billion rubles or $6.6 billion) or Krasnodar Krai (600 billion rubles or $7.5 billion)

Budget deficit widens

Russia’s Finance Ministry estimated a budget deficit of up to 3.8 trillion rubles (about $48 billion) for the first nine months of 2025, significantly higher than the 0.4 trillion ruble deficit during the same period in 2024.

The State Duma (Russian parliament) has approved amendments to the budget that include this deficit.

Total government spending surged by 13.9 percent year-on-year to 37.2 trillion rubles, while revenues increased at a much slower 0.7 percent to 32.9 trillion rubles.

2025 budget framework

Russia’s 2025 budget allocates 32.5 percent of total spending to national defense, amounting to 13.5 trillion rubles (over $145 billion), the highest level since the Cold War.

The budget represents the most secretive in post-Soviet history, with almost one-third of all spending closed to public scrutiny, according to analysts.

The government has presented the budget as “balanced,” though independent analysts note that military spending continues to crowd out social services and infrastructure investment as the war enters its fourth year.