Russian Communist Party lawmaker says the country’s economy ‘won’t survive’ a prolonged war

A State Duma deputy from the Novosibirsk region representing Russia’s Communist Party (KPRF) said Russia must bring the war in Ukraine to “the swiftest possible end” because the country’s economy “won’t survive a prolonged special military operation.” The deputy, Renat Suleymanov, made the remarks in an interview with the Novosibirsk-based news outlet Kontinent Sibiri.

Forty percent of the federal budget is going to defense and security, he said, hindering development and investment.

“Tanks and shells have no consumer value: the economy produces them, but they can’t be consumed by the population. They are pure expenditure. Yes, they support employment and wages in the defense sector and serve as a kind of driver. But at the same time they drive inflation and crowd out other spending — social spending, investment. That’s why the swiftest possible end to the SVO is simply necessary. The special military operation has already lasted longer than World War II. God willing, it will end in victory and not some intermediate result,” Suleymanov said.

He added that passing a budget with reduced military spending would be “far from the hardest part.”

“What happens to the people employed in the defense industry? To those who are under arms right now? A million people will return to civilian life. Where are the jobs, the decent wages, the social reintegration? The problems won’t get any smaller. On top of that, there will be the question of rebuilding the new territories. I saw Mariupol in 2022 and the steppes of Kherson region in 2023: there are no houses left, no Soviet-era irrigation. Reconstruction has begun. But it will require enormous budget expenditure going forward,” he concluded.

As noted by Agentstvo, in April 2022 Suleymanov said that the “Kyiv regime must be negotiated with only on terms of capitulation.” The mobilization announced that same year he called “a harsh, painful necessity to ensure victory.”

According to the federal budget for 2026 adopted by the State Duma, military spending will amount to 12.93 trillion rubles, and including spending on security and law enforcement — 16.84 trillion rubles. That is one and a half times more than total social spending (10.8 trillion rubles).