Page 66 - RusRPTOct23

5.3 FDI
Russia expects that foreign investors will return to the Russian market
after being pushed to leave by their own governments, according to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin speaking on September 28. "We know that many foreign investors wanted to keep their projects in our country, and we noticed that they were interested in doing so. We respect their efforts and recognize the circumstances they found themselves in as a result of their own authorities' actions. Some were forced to leave Russia," he said. "We hope that pragmatism will prevail and they will return," Mishustin added.
6.0 Public Sector 6.1 Budget
The Russian government has approved its first full wartime budget that will significantly increase military spending in 2024 as well as boost social spending to shelter the population from the effects of war and sanctions.
The draft budget for 2024 will increase military spending 1.7-fold and for the first time in the history of modern Russia will exceed social spending. The latter, however, will also increase, as will the costs of security forces and intelligence services, The Bell reported onSeptember 22.
To finance these huge expenses, the government will have to find somewhere an additional RUB7 trillion rubles in revenue compared to 2023. Firstly, this makes it inevitable that inflation will continue to accelerate and the Central Bank will maintain a high rate. And secondly, it almost inevitably means new taxes - and the authorities are already moving in this direction. So far the Ministry of Finance (MinFin) has done everything it can to avoid raising taxes other than hitting big business with a windfall tax on large enterprises that should bring in an extra RUB300bn ($4bn) of revenues. The draft federal budget for 2024–2026 must be submitted to the Duma before October 1. The government press service disclosed only the general parameters of the budget, without a breakdown of expenses, but Bloomberg was leaked figures for the most important items.
66 RUSSIA Country Report October 2023 www.intellinews.com