Russia's military spending has risen sharply and exceeded the Kremlin's plans — Der Spiegel
In the first half of 2026, Russia’s military spending rose by 30%—to 10.7 trillion rubles. If this pace continues, spending on the war could exceed 9% of the country’s GDP by the end of the year.
This is reported by Der Spiegel and German economist Janis Klug.
According to Der Spiegel, Russia spent 10.7 trillion rubles on military needs from January through June, which amounts to approximately €107 billion. At the end of the first half of the year, this sum represented 4.7% of Russia’s projected GDP for 2026.
The calculations are based on data from the Russian Budget Monitor—a project of the Berlin-based Science and Politics Foundation (SWP) led by Janis Klugé. The monitor uses official data from the Russian Ministry of Finance and allows for the separate tracking of military expenditures.
The Russian government had planned to halt the growth of military spending by 2026. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov stated his intention to stabilize or even reduce it.
Kluge called this goal very ambitious. In his assessment, achieving it would be difficult even in the event of a ceasefire. The economist also noted that the scale of the actual increase in spending came as a surprise.
If Russia maintains the spending rate observed from January through June in the second half of the year, military spending could exceed 9% of GDP by the end of 2026. Such a figure would set a new record in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
Previously, Moscow had planned to reduce the share of military spending in the budget. According to Glavkom, the 2026 budget called for a reduction from 7.8% of GDP in 2025 to 6.2% of GDP.
Actual spending has gone in the opposite direction. According to Kluge’s estimate, Russia spent 5.9 trillion rubles on the war in the first quarter—nearly 30% more than during the same period last year.
“The war is going in the wrong direction for Putin,” Klug said, commenting on the situation.
Russian officials have spent millions on anti-eavesdropping measures.
Vladimir Putin likely decided to further escalate the war after several weeks of deliberation over the summer. According to The Economist, the Russian dictator may be seeking to preserve his power and his life through escalation.
As a reminder, on the afternoon of August 30, Russian forces attacked Kyiv with strike drones. Explosions were heard in the capital, and air defense forces engaged enemy targets.
