Page 18 - RusRPTDec23

were ultimately adopted. Most of the proposed changes concerned the reallocation of spending from the classified part of the budget to the public part. As a result, the unclassified part increased by 1.17 trillion rubles ($13.2bn), reaching 26.82 trillion ($302.8bn), according to the outlet RBC.
Most of the redistribution occurred in the budget’s “national defence” section: its non-classified portion increased by 725bn rubles ($8.2bn).
The category that had the second-highest amount of funds redistributed was “national economy”: 152.49bn rubles ($1.7bn) were transferred from the classified to the non-classified section. A significant part of these funds are set to go to rebuilding the Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed.
In total, for the next three years, the Russian authorities moved about seven trillion rubles ($79bn) from budget’s classified section to its non-classified section, according to the Finance Ministry. While this did increase transparency, the budget remains more classified than any previous one: the share of expenditures that are classified will be just under 27% in 2024, compared to about 19% in 2022 and 15% in 2021.
More spending on the annexed Ukrainian regions.
The Russian government’s program to restore Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it annexed, was originally slated to receive 232.9bn rubles ($2.6bn) in 2024. Later amendments increased funding for the program by several tens ofbns of rubles (equal to hundreds ofmns of dollars) by reallocating money from the budget’s classified section.
Twenty-fourbn rubles ($271.9mn) will be designated to support people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by the war; threebn ($34mn) will go to restoring power grids; 2.2bn ($25mn) is earmarked for the development of the coal sector in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; and 3.9bn ($44.2mn) is set to go towards recapitalizing local industrial development funds.
Increased subsidies for state-owned companies.
By redistributing expenditures from the classified section of the budget to the unclassified section, the government also increased subsidies for state-controlled companies.
For example, funding for the transport of agricultural and food products will increase from eightbn rubles (90.3mn) to 11bn rubles ($124.2mn).
Fifteenbn rubles ($169.3mn) was reallocated to banks to subsidize preferential auto loans. In 2024, more than 17bn rubles ($191.9bn) will go towards these loans; in 2025, more than 23bn rubles ($259.7mn) will; and in 2026, they’ll receive more than 24.7bn ($278.9mn). In total, 65bn rubles ($733.8mn) will go to preferential car loans over the next three years compared to the initial proposal of 50bn ($564.5mn).
18 RUSSIA Country Report December 2023 www.intellinews.com