Half of Russia’s tax revenue goes to war spending

More than half of Russia’s budget revenues are being spent on the war in Ukraine, according to research by Germany’s Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) based on Russia’s “Electronic Budget” system.

Military spending accounted for 50.1% of government revenue in the first quarter of 2025 and 48.2% in the second. By comparison, the share stood at 24.4% in 2022, 32.05% in 2023 and 39.05% in 2024.

In the first half of 2025, Russia’s finance ministry collected 17.6 trillion rubles in revenue but spent 21.3 trillion. Defense spending totaled 8.5 trillion rubles, up 31% from a year earlier and triple the level in the first year of the war — a modern record that surpasses even late Soviet-era figures.

N.Tebrizli