Page 36 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

36 I Cover story bne June 2024
Spending on the military has soared to $140bn a year, but in parallel the budget for the National Projects has also expanded as Putin tries to find a balance between "guns and butter." / bne IntelliNews
“Guns and butter” are both important,
Putin tells military commanders
Ben Aris in Berlin
Federal budget expenditures for
implementation of National
Projects will total RUB3.008 trillion ($33.3bn) in 2024, the Russian Finance Ministry told TASS, or just under a quarter of what is being spent on defence.
"The Federal Law "On the federal budget for 2024 and the planned period of
2025 and 2026" provides RUB3.008.4 trillion for implementation of National Projects in 2024. The largest amount of budget allocations in 2024 is provided for implementation of the following National Projects: Demography - RUB890bn ($9.9bn), Safe Quality Roads - RUB621.4bn ($6.9bn), Healthcare
- RUB283.8bn ($3.15bn), and Education - RUB237.2bn ($2.6bn)," the ministry said.
Federal budget spending for National Projects provisionally totalled RUB2.53 trillion ($28bn) or 84.5% of planned allocations as of December 1, 2023,
the ministry said earlier.
www.bne.eu
Following the recent cabinet reshuffle, technocratic economist and close Putin ally Andrei Belousov has been appointed Defence Minister in a move that is seen as an effort to improve the efficiency of the military spending.
However, spending on the 12 National Projects that were launched in 2019 has also been ramped up. Belousov played a leading role in drawing up that plan which has recently been dramatically expanded under National Projects 2.1.
“While increasing our defence and security expenditures, we bear in mind that all our social obligations to the people must be fulfilled, and that our national development goals must be achieved in all spheres, including in social protection,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting
with his military district commanders on May 16.
Putin explained he was referring to education, healthcare, support for veterans, pensions and the like.
“All this must certainly be done while the growing defence spending is growing. At the same time, we see and understand that growing defence and security expenses are also intrinsically connected, one way or another, with civilian industries, which is boosting economic development as a whole and increasing the number of jobs (the unemployment rate is currently at a historic low in the country),” Putin added. “However, this connection between “guns” and “butter” must
be organically incorporated into the general development strategy of the Russian state.”
While military spending has overtaken social spending for the first time ever, spending on the National projects is already equivalent to a quarter of what