Russia’s Finance Ministry asked government to freeze spending across all budget lines except military, FT reports

Source: Financial Times

Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov asked the government in February to cut spending across every budget line item for 2026 except military expenditures, the Financial Times reported.

Siluanov called for total cuts of 2.9 trillion rubles. Under a negative scenario, his letter warned, spending in the three-year budget would need to be reduced by as much as 7.1 trillion rubles in 2028.

Siluanov wrote the letter before the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran. The conflict drove up global oil prices, and the United States eased restrictions on Russian oil deliveries — providing the Russian budget with additional revenue, though not enough, the Financial Times wrote, to cover Russia’s costs in the war in Ukraine.

In an interview with the Russian business daily Kommersant published on May 27, Siluanov said his ministry was working on revising the budget, pointing to “changed macroeconomic conditions” and the need to concentrate resources on key priority areas. “Reserves are not infinite,” he said.

The latest version of Russia’s 2026 budget projects a deficit of about 1.6% of GDP (with revenues at 40.28 trillion rubles and spending at 44.07 trillion rubles). However, in the first quarter of this year, the budget deficit reached 2.5% of GDP — the worst level since the start of the full-scale war with Ukraine, the Financial Times notes.

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Russia’s Finance Ministry asked government to freeze spending across all budget lines except military, FT reports

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Russia’s Finance Ministry asked government to freeze spending across all budget lines except military, FT reports

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