June 14, 2026

The War Path to Bankruptcy


The War Path to Bankruptcy
Image generated by Claude AI.

The Kremlin is spending R65 billion rubles per day ($900,000) on its War on Ukraine.

This is as reported by Meduza. The publication reported that, according to calculations based on Finance Ministry data by Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, in the first quarter of this year, Russian spending on the war hit R5.908 trillion. That’s a 30 percent increase from 2025.

Kluge reported that Russian growth in war spending has been mostly through classified line items in the state budget. Over the past year, spending under such items grew by 43 percent, from R3.4 trillion to R4.9 trillion. About 85 percent of spending under the classified line items goes toward military needs.

Given that total federal spending in the first quarter of 2026 was R12.8 trillion, spending on the war accounted for 46 percent of all budget expenditures this quarter.

Meanwhile, Russia took in just R8.3 trillion in revenue during the first quarter of 2026, which represents a R4.5 trillion shortfall. And it also means that a sum equivalent to two-thirds of revenues that came into the state during the first quarter was funneled into the war.

The Moscow Times, citing Kluge, reported that during the first quarter Russia was spending R65 billion rubles each day on its war. For comparison’s sake, Meduza noted, that is equivalent to the annual budget of Novgorod Oblast or Oryol Oblast (69 billion and 61 billion rubles, respectively).

Meanwhile, Kluge said that the surge in spending in the first quarter could also be attributable to accounting hijinks – moving 2025 expenditures into 2026 in order to avoid going over the planned budget deficit for 2025.

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