Trillion for murderers. As Putin poured crazy money into the army and why it did not work in Ukraine - Russian media preect
At the same time, the effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Russia, as the war in Ukraine showed, is extremely low. NV provides the main theses from Rustamova. When Putin decided to start a full -scale war with Ukraine, no one knows for sure. But it can be said for sure that it pumps oil and gas income for the Russian army for all 22 years, which is in power.
This is clearly visible if you study the priorities of the Kremlin's budget policy since 2000, as well as compare the military expenditures of Russia and other countries, the journalist said. Video Day in the 1990s was a pathetic spectacle. It numbered 3 million people, almost 1.
5% of the country's population (in the USSR, for comparison, 1%), but the financial support of servicemen was extremely low, payments were constantly delayed, the state did not have time to build the promised military housing. The decision was made to gradually reduce the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as well as the cutting of the purchase of new weapons. But even with this money, there was not enough money.
The new section in the history of the Russian army began with the arrival of Vladimir Putin as president. “The time when the state did not spare money for its maintenance and the creation of new weapons. And Putin's money has been increasing every year thanks to the growth of oil prices every year, ”Rustamova writes.
After the death of the submarine Kursk and the bloody suppression of the independence of Ichkeria, the head of the Kremlin took a course to create a numerically smaller but better technologically equipped army. This needed huge funds, their source became the federal budget. The triumph of new militaristic ideology is Putin's speech in the Moscow arena in 2018.
It was then that he announced new types of weapons, which, he said in Russia since 2002, have no analogues in the world and are invulnerable to the enemy. It is a hypersonic rocket dagger, a Sarmat complex with a heavy intercontinental missile "Limits for flight range", an avant -garde missile complex with a hypersonic routine winged block, unmanned subsidence devices and combat laser complexes.
If most of the Super Weapons are still in the form of projects and presentation "cartoons", then the toy rocket was used during aggression against Ukraine in 2022. Stockholm Institute for World Research (SIPRI) estimated that in 21 years of Russia's military expenses increased more than seven times: in 2000 they amounted to $ 9. 23 billion, and in 2021 - $ 65. 9 billion. At the unchanged level - about 1. 4 million.
If in 2000 Russia ranked 21st in the world at military expenses, then the results of 2021-the fifth. Any EU country spends less on the army than Russia. For example, the military expenditures of the two largest European economies - Germany and France - were smaller, and they have grown much more slowly since 2000 than Russia's military expenses. In 2021, the German military budget amounted to $ 56 billion against $ 26. 5 billion 2000, France - $ 56. 6 against $ 28. 4 billion, respectively.
In absolute numbers, Russia is inferior to military expenditures only by the US, China, India and the United Kingdom. In 2021, Ukraine spent $ 5. 9 billion on the army, ie less than Russia. “National defense article is one of the largest in the federal budget of Russia, which Putin signs every year as a president. Simply simplifying, it can be said that the federal budget is the money that the Kremlin disposes directly.
About two -thirds of defense costs are classified, and Russian citizens do not know what these huge funds are spending. However, the main recipient of budget financing for the development of new weapons is known - the State Corporation of Rostech, which brings together more than 800 industrial enterprises and design bureaus. Putin created this state corporation back in 2007, and has been managed by her for more than 15 years for Putin's service in KGB Sergey Chemezov, ”Faraida Rustamov said.
According to the media preelectance, from 2006 to 2021 the share of cash expenditures on the army among all expenditures of the federal budget varied from 12. 3%to 23%, and given the article national security and law enforcement, the share of security forces will increase to 22. 7%-34 -34 6%. The Kremlin spends more on the payment of pensions and social assistance, much less - on education and health care.
National defense is the only major article of the State Budget of the Russian Federation that has never been reduced in nominal terms from 2000 to 2016. The costs of both schools, hospital, infrastructure, as well as social payments came under the knife, and the army absorbed money at an increasing rate, especially after the 2008 war.
In 2017, the nominal expenses under the article national defense decreased, which is likely to be explained by the reduction of the program of state guarantees (these are not direct expenses, but possible expenses in the future) for defense enterprises. However, in 2022, the expenses for the army returned in nominal terms to the level of 2016 - about 3. 6 trillion rubles. Putin personally decides what the costs of the army and the special services in the budget.
“All basic parameters and controversial decisions are always made at the Presidential level. This is a series of defense meetings in August-September every year. The Minister of Finance and Security officers fly to Sochi and "Budget", - said the former government official Faridaily. The annual costs of education in Russia are 4% of GDP against 7% in Sweden, which is leading in the world by this indicator.
At the same time, most of education expenses in Russia are entrusted to regions, not on the Federal Center. Even more sadly in health care. Public expenditures in Russia for these purposes-3. 5-4. 1%, most developed countries spend at least 5% of GDP for health care. In some countries, this figure is much higher. For example, state spending in Germany was 11%last year, 9. 8%in Sweden, 9. 9%in the United Kingdom.
In 2014, Putin suffered a great political defeat - his Kiev heaven Viktor Yanukovych fled, Ukrainians on the Maidan supported the country's European integration. The Kremlin sent troops to the Crimea and to the Donbas, but another indicative reaction was a radical increase in the cost of the army, Rustamova notes. It is from 2014 that, according to SIPRI calculations, Russia has become one of the world leaders in military spending as a percentage of GDP G20 countries.
It is this indicator that allows you to compare the level of "militancy" of governments: the relationship between the costs of the army and the size of the economy is calculated. According to the Swedish Institute, in 2020, 4. 26% of GDP reached the army in Russia, which is greater than in the US, China, the United Kingdom and any of the EU countries.
In 2021, thanks to the growth of the global economy after the pandemic, these figures decreased slightly, but Russia retained the second place in the G20 after Saudi Arabia, which, like other Gulf countries, spends a lot on the army in percentage of GDP. The statistics of the Federal Budget of Russia make it possible to conclude that for 2014-2016 the peak of the re -equipment of the aggressor army has fallen.
The state weapons program (DPO) is secret, but its general parameters did not hide the authorities. According to Rustamova, DPO became the first in Russia's history such a program, the implementation of which was not torn. By 2027 it is planned to spend 21. 7 trillion rubles. But the appetites of the military are even greater: the program has already begun for the period from 2024 to 2033, and the military wants to get 30 trillion rubles.
According to the Vice -Rector of the Paris Institute of Political Research (Sciences PO) Sergey Guryev, after the occupation of Crimea, the authorities of Russia began to save even on expenditures in the pension system: in 2014 voluntary pension accumulations were frozen, in 2016 they refused to index the pensions, and in 2018. to increase the retirement age. "Putin consciously chose the way to increase military costs for the detriment of the cost of developing human capital," Guriev emphasizes.
“Despite the giant budget expenditures, the Russian army seems to be shaking in Ukraine, and the drones released by the Ukrainian military are already flying over the heads of the Russians. It is unlikely that the Kremlin was considered such a scenario as a basic at the beginning of its so -called special military operation, ”Rustamov concludes.
The military failures of Russia are related not only to the underestimation of patriotism of Ukrainians and the Armed Forces preparedness to reflect aggression, but also to the revaluation of the Russian Army and its equipment.
Giant military expenditures went to the sand: even around power experts (for example, Vasyl Kashin with VSH and a member of the Public Council at the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Ruslan Pukhov) acknowledge that the Russian army lacks drones, technical intelligence, modern surveillance (first of all, thermal imagers) and armored vehicles Last generation techniques.
In addition, Russia has entered the war with an extremely low share of land troops necessary for successful fighting in Ukraine. The Kremlin has developed airborne troops in recent years, the skills of which have little in demand in the current conflict. The Economist journalists noted that the efficiency of government spending on the army is reduced due to Russia's ancient problem - corruption.