Russian lawmakers give final nod to boost military spending | Russia-Ukraine war News

The sharp increase in spending builds on last year's record, as Moscow continues its war with Ukraine, confronting the West.

Members of Parliament in the Russian Parliament have given final approval in parliament to a plan to increase military spending by nearly 30 percent next year.

The Federation Council on Wednesday passed the 2025 budget, which builds defense and security spending to levels not seen since the Soviet era. The tightening, which follows a similar move in 2024, comes as Moscow pursues its war in Ukraine and steps up its rhetoric against the West and its supply of weapons to Kyiv.

The budget sets a record 13.5 billion rubles (about $125 billion) in “national defense” spending. That's about 3 billion rubles (about $26.6 billion) more than this year's allocation, which itself represented a post-Cold War record for Russia's military spending.

Defense spending by 2025 is set to exceed spending on welfare and education combined.

In addition, the number of core costs does not include the services of “domestic defense” and other categories that are considered top secret.

The budget will now be sent to be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.

'All respect'

As heavy fighting continues in the eastern regions of Ukraine, where Russia has been making slow advances, and in Kursk inside Russia, Moscow is showing that it plans to prolong the war, and has lashed out at the West by increasing its support for Kyiv.

Putin is adamant that Ukraine must surrender, give up some of the occupied territories, and promise not to join NATO.

Moscow confirmed last week that Russia had tested a medium-range hypersonic missile during its attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

This move, Russia says, is in response to Ukraine's use of missiles supplied by the United States and the United Kingdom inside Russian territory.

Putin also recently signed off on a review of Russia's nuclear doctrine, which will now authorize a nuclear strike if attacked by a non-nuclear-weapon state.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that NATO has “abandoned all respect” and is now seeking a direct attack on Russian missile launch sites deep in its territory.

Troubled economies

Amid increased Western funding and the arming of Ukraine, Kyiv also passed defense spending plans earlier this month.

Ukrainian lawmakers in the parliament supported a budget of 2.2 billion hryvnias (more than 53 billion dollars), about 26 percent of Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP), for defense and security by 2025.

Moscow's increased military spending comes as its economy continues to grapple with the fallout from the war, including rising inflation and a weakening national currency.

The ruble, which trades at around 75-80 to the US dollar, has faced renewed pressure amid the escalating war and is now changing hands at more than 105 per dollar.

Russia's light budget on Wednesday predicted an inflation rate of 4.5 percent in 2025, falling to 4 percent in the next two years.

It indicated that GDP will increase by 2.5 percent by 2025; Russia's GDP rose slightly over the past two years to reach 2.8 percent growth.