**Russia’s Defense Spending Surges to Record Levels**
The Russian government has spent a record-breaking $43 billion on “national defense” in the third quarter of 2024, according to a report by The Moscow Times. This represents an average weekly spending of $3.29 billion and $19.6 million per hour.
**Military Spending Soars**
Both publicly disclosed and classified defense expenditures have seen significant increases. Publicly disclosed spending rose by 71% from the previous quarter to $13.81 billion, while classified spending surged 131% to $29.47 billion.
**Comparison to Other Budgets**
This single-quarter defense expenditure is nearly triple Russia’s annual higher education budget of $15.46 billion and about 15 times the yearly budgets of regions such as Irkutsk ($2.7 billion) or Novosibirsk ($3.33 billion).
**Military Salaries and Foreign Cooperation**
Spending on military salaries, including bonuses for contract workers, rose by 26% year-over-year to $6.14 billion. Additionally, expenditures on “military cooperation with foreign countries” reached a record $1.73 billion in Q3.
**Future Defense Spending Plans**
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a federal budget that includes record defense spending over the next three years. Military expenditures are projected to reach 13.5 trillion rubles ($126 billion) in 2025, exceeding combined spending on education, healthcare, social policy, and the economy.
**Other News**
* Leader of Moldova’s Russian-occupied Transnistria region, Vadim Krasnoselsky, introduced a 30-day economic state of emergency due to the risk of Russian gas supply disruptions.
* The F-35s intercepted a Russian An-72 transport aircraft and an SU-24 reconnaissance aircraft under NATO’s eastern airspace monitoring mission.
* A Russian-controlled court in occupied Crimea sentenced a local resident to 15 years in prison for state treason.
Read More @ kyivindependent.com