Despite governmental austerity directives, Russia’s spending on military hardware and its armed forces has continued to increase rapidly through 2026. This alarming trend was highlighted by “Der Spiegel”, which referenced an evaluation from the “Russian Budget Monitor” by Janis Kluge, an economist and Russia expert at the Berlin-based Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP).
During the first half of the year, military expenditures saw a 30 percent jump, reaching 10.7 trillion rubles (roughly equivalent to 107 billion euros). By the end of June alone, defense spending accounted for 4.7 percent of Russia’s projected annual GDP.
Kluge told “Der Spiegel” that if this rate of growth persists into the second half of the year, military expenditures are expected to exceed nine percent of Russian gross domestic product by December-a new post-Soviet record.
The Russian government had originally aimed to halt the rise in defense outlays. Defense Minister Andrey Belousov had promised to stabilize or even reduce these costs. According to Kluge, while this was an extremely ambitious goal that would have been difficult to achieve even with a ceasefire, the dramatic increase in spending is surprising. He concluded that the war is developing in a fundamentally unfavorable direction for Putin.
