Putin approves military focused 2025-2027 budget

Moscow (Reuters): Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a military focused budget for 2025-2027, a document published on the official legal acts website showed on Sunday.

The state budget for next year includes a 25% hike in military spending but will be the most secretive in post-Soviet history, with almost a third of all spending closed to public scrutiny.

The government has acknowledged that the needs of what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine and support for the military will remain the budget priority along with social needs and technological development.

The government has presented the draft budget as "balanced", with the deficit falling to 0.5% against this year's projected deficit of 1.7% and state debt remaining below the 20% mark for the next three years.