Russia’s military budget expenditures for the first half of 2025 set a new absolute record — 8.484 trillion rubles, calculated based on Ministry of Finance data by Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International Security Studies.
Compared to the same period last year, spending on the army and weapons production increased by 31%; compared to January–June 2023 — by 95%; and compared to the first year of the war — threefold, according to Kluge’s calculations.
On average, the “military machine” consumed 1.4 trillion rubles per month and 46.9 billion rubles per day — an amount exceeding the annual budgets of Russia’s poorest regions (28.8 billion rubles in Kalmykia, 30.5 billion rubles in Karachay-Cherkessia, 42.7 billion rubles in the Altai Republic). Almost two-thirds (62%) of Russia’s military budget is classified, according to Kluge’s estimates: over six months, 3.203 trillion rubles were spent on open defense items, and 5.281 trillion on “shadow” items. Over the year, the secret budget increased by 41%, and compared to January–June of the first year of the war — nearly fourfold.
In 2022–24, the government spent over 20 trillion rubles on the army and state defense orders. For the 2025 budget, another 13.5 trillion rubles were allocated under the “national defense” item — 30% of all expenditures, a record share since the Soviet Union.
