Bloomberg: Russia has classified $ 110 billion in the budget

In next year’s budget, Russia hid about a quarter of its planned spending. According to calculations BloombergBased on the document, the 2023 draft budget provides for about 6.5 trillion rubles ($112 billion) in secret or unspecified spending. Total expenses are planned at the level of 29 trillion rubles.

This level of secrecy is unprecedented and reflects Russia’s growing reluctance to display its financial statements. Earlier, the Cabinet of the Russian Federation had already stopped publishing some key statistics. Including, a detailed breakdown of trade items.

The Russian Accounts Chamber reported that spending on secret needs in the first half of the year amounted to just under 19%. The share of secret spending reached its peak in 2015 and amounted to 21%. Last year, the indicator was at a record low of 14.9%.

Apparently, Moscow intends to increase defense spending as the situation in Ukraine escalates. No wonder the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Anton Siluanov stressed that “we have now closed a lot.” He noted that the government would not disclose the cost of SVO in Ukraine.

The publication came to the conclusion that, based on the published data, it can be concluded that priorities are shifting towards increasing spending on the army. In 2023, they will grow by 43% more than previously estimated. All secret spending before approval by both houses of the Russian parliament will be discussed at a closed meeting of the commission.

The budget will probably include spending on four regions of Donbass, which will become part of Russia after the referendums.

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