Russian defense purchasing set to increase by 50 percent in 2023

When speaking before the Defense Ministry collegium, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Russia’s defense purchasing will increase by almost 50 percent in 2023, “factoring in the additional budgetary means being allocated.”

“This will enable us to supply military formations and permanent-readiness units with weapons and equipment at around 97 percent,” he said. Shoigu called for maintaining maximal production volumes by the defense industry, and for “anticipatory deliveries” of armaments to the troops, ahead of the time they might be needed.

Based on the Ukranian military’s data, Forbes Ukraine has calculated that Russia spent $82 billion on the invasion since its beginning last February. This is a quarter of its annual budgetary income. (This information cannot be immediately verified.)

According to the Russian Ministry of Finance, Russia’s defense spending was 4.7 trillion rubles (or about $77 billion) in 2022. The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported that this is 1.2 trillion rubles (or $20 billion) more than the approved 2022 military spending budget. Close to 5 trillion rubles are being allocated to defense for 2023, and 4.6 trillion for 2024.

Russia’s defense purchasing is only part of its total defense budget. Traditionally, about half of the defense spending goes towards purchasing military goods and equipment, as well as financing military contracts. The rest covers the military’s operating expenditures, the servicemen’s allowances, training, and similar expenses — as pointed out by Vasily Kashin, the director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) at the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics.