Military budget of the Russian Federation

The military budget of Russia is the portion of the overall budget of Russia that is allocated for the funding of the Russian Armed Forces. This military budget finances employee salaries and training costs, the maintenance of equipment and facilities, support of new or ongoing operations, and development and procurement of new weapons, equipment, and vehicles.

In 2014, Russia's military budget of 2.49 trillion rubles (worth approximately US$69.3 billion at 2014 exchange rates) was higher than any other European nation, and approximately 1/7th (14%) of the US military budget. However, a collapse in the value of the Rouble greatly reduced the dollar-value of the planned 2015 Russian military budget to US$52 billion, despite a 33% increase in its Rouble-value to 3.3 trillion. Due to the ongoing crisis the planned 33% increase had to be reduced to 25.6%, meaning the 2015 Russian military budget totalled 3.1 trillion rubles. The originally planned 3.36 trillion budget for 2016 has also been reduced to a planned budget of 3.145 trillion rubles, an increase of only 0.8% over 2015.

Unofficial estimates place the total amount of military spending for the Russian Federation higher than the Russian government figures, but these calculations tend to differ between organizations. According to the IISS "By simple observation..[the military budget] would appear to be lower than is suggested by the size of the armed forces or the structure of the military-industrial complex, and thus neither of the figures is particularly useful for comparative analysis".

IHS Inc. estimated the 2013 Russian military budget as being US$68.9 billion, US$78 billion in 2014, and predict a rise to US$98 billion in 2016. IHS described this as a rapid increase in spending which will result in the defence budget increasing from 15.7 percent of federal expenditure in 2013 to 20.6 percent by 2016.

The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) estimated the 2013 Russian military budget at US$68.2 billion, a 31% rise since 2008. IISS noted in their 2013 report that this meant that Russia had passed the UK and Saudi Arabia to become the world's third largest military spender, though exchange rates had also been a factor in this.

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Wikipedia