Putin said in May that Russia was slated to spend around 8.7% of its GDP on military spending. This is slightly higher than your estimate of 7-8%. Is your estimate lower because Russia's GDP is forecasted to grow larger this year than initially thought (back when Putin made this statement) or because Putin might be adding some of what you listed as "Costs of the War in Ukraine" into his assessment of military spending spending as a % of GDP?
Putin's figure is higher because it includes spending on domestic security (Interior Ministry, regular police apparatus etc.). A relatively small share of domestic security spending is considered military spending (mostly spending on the National Guard, which participates in the war).
Putin said in May that Russia was slated to spend around 8.7% of its GDP on military spending. This is slightly higher than your estimate of 7-8%. Is your estimate lower because Russia's GDP is forecasted to grow larger this year than initially thought (back when Putin made this statement) or because Putin might be adding some of what you listed as "Costs of the War in Ukraine" into his assessment of military spending spending as a % of GDP?
https://english.news.cn/20240515/3b9e8b870e8d440e8303475fa9b1049a/c.html
Putin's figure is higher because it includes spending on domestic security (Interior Ministry, regular police apparatus etc.). A relatively small share of domestic security spending is considered military spending (mostly spending on the National Guard, which participates in the war).
Ah I see, thanks for the reply! Great article btw, extremely informative. Very excited for the next one.
> Accordingly, total military spending would be 7-8% of GDP
Your numbers seem to agree with the World in Data, which reported 2023 Russian military expenditures of 5.9% of GDP.
At the same time I was somehow expecting the percentage to be much higher, perhaps because I tend to view the war through Ukrainian lenses.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/military-spending-as-a-share-of-gdp-sipri
I forgot to mention that Julian Cooper calculates the Russian budget data for SIPRI, which is the source of World in Data.