Russia admits it needs a "huge" budget for the war in Ukraine

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 Russian officials admit that the country needs a huge budget to continue the special military operation in Ukraine, as well as to stimulate the economy under the "storm" of sanctions against the West.


In a speech on May 27, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the country needed a "huge" financial source to continue the military operation in Ukraine.


Russia has sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine since February 24 to carry out a special operation, a move that has prompted the West to impose an unprecedented series of sanctions. The Russian economy has been affected to a certain extent, with the inflation rate having risen to almost 18%.


"A huge amount of money and resources are needed for the military operation," Siluanov said.


Earlier, the Moscow Times quoted data released by the Russian Finance Ministry on May 17 as saying that Russia's defense budget has more than doubled since Russia began deploying military operations in Ukraine at the end of the month. 2.


In January, the Russian government spent 233.7 billion rubles on the military, then this amount increased to 369 billion rubles in February when Russia started moving troops and military equipment to the Ukrainian border. In April, Russia's defense budget increased to about 628 billion rubles, or about 21 billion rubles per day.


According to Newsweek, on average, Russia spent nearly 1 billion rubles, equivalent to 15.5 million USD, for every hour of fighting in Ukraine.


In another development, the Russian minister said that the country will apply an economic stimulus package of about 8 trillion rubles ($120 billion) to deal with current challenges.


This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 10% increase in pension and basic salary to cope with inflation. However, he denied that Russia's economic problems were related to the special military operation.


Putin acknowledged that 2022 will be a difficult year for the Russian economy. "When I say difficult, it doesn't mean that every difficulty is related to a special military operation. Because in countries that do not conduct any operations - for example in North America, in Europe Europe - inflation is also quite high," the Russian leader said.


Russia's increase in pensions and basic wages will cost the federal budget 600 billion rubles this year and 1 trillion rubles next year.


In addition, in a television interview last night, Mr. Siluanov revealed that Russia's oil and gas revenue this year will increase by 1 trillion rubles and this will be used to pay for welfare benefits. social benefit.


Earlier, Mr. Siluanov also spoke out to defend Russia's application of capital controls and asset freezes on foreign investors from "unfriendly" countries in response to sanctions. of the West.


"We will keep the investments of foreigners from unfriendly countries in Russia in the same way that they keep our gold and foreign exchange reserves," Mr. Siluanov said. He mentioned the move of the West to freeze about 300 billion USD of Russia's reserves.

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