Russia 2027 budget raises defence spending, cuts education

Russia's draft 2027 budget would raise defence spending to 17.1 trillion rubles, or about $204 billion, while reducing planned funding for education, healthcare and social programmes.

The draft documents, submitted to the lower house of parliament, show defence spending would be more than a third of all outlays and exceed planned spending on healthcare, education and social welfare combined.

Planned healthcare and education spending are each set to fall by more than five percent compared with earlier 2027 plans. Social programme spending is set to fall by more than six percent. The federal anti-cancer programme would lose about 97 percent of its originally budgeted funding, according to the documents.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov described both social welfare and defence spending as priorities when presenting the draft budget. The government has also proposed tax increases, including higher rates on bank deposits and property sales.

The 2027 deficit is estimated at about 5.4 trillion rubles, around $64.4 billion, more than 70 percent above the 3.2 trillion-ruble deficit forecast for 2027 last year. State debt is expected to rise above 20 percent of GDP.

Alexander Kolyandr, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said published defence totals could rise because actual defence spending is classified. Russia has repeatedly exceeded long-term defence spending forecasts since launching its offensive in Ukraine.