The Russian defense budget is currently at a record high as a result of the country’s warfare in Ukraine, but will be increased further next year.
The lower house of the Russian National Assembly, the Duma, decided on Thursday to spend an amount equivalent to NOK 1,480 billion on the country’s armed forces and the war in Ukraine next year.
It is now considered a formality that the budget is approved in the upper house, after which only President Vladimir Putin’s signature remains.
The new budget involves an increase of close to 30 percent from the current year and will eat up just over 6 percent of Russia’s estimated gross domestic product.
Putin said earlier this year that nearly 9 percent of the Russian economy went to “defense and security,” more than at any time since the end of the Cold War.
Britain is now directly involved in the war
Britain is now directly involved in the Ukraine war, says Russia’s ambassador to the country.
The statement comes after Ukrainian forces fired a series of long-range British Storm Shadow missiles at Russia on Wednesday, a day after US ATACMS missiles were fired.
– Britain is now directly involved in this war, because firing such rockets could not happen without personnel from NATO and British personnel, says Ambassador Andrei Kein to Sky News.
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