Paul Goble
Staunton,
September 30 – The Russian government plans to increase spending on the
military and police by 33 percent over the next three years, relying on higher
oil prices schedules far smaller increases on social needs like healthcare and housing
and reduces support to the regions, according to finance ministry documents
released this week.
Those
plans (regulation.gov.ru/projects#),
discussed in detail Finanz.ru (finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/pensii-rossiyan-brosyat-na-finansirovanie-silovikov-1027572367), show that
despite protests against the government’s raising of pension ages, Moscow intends
to spend relatively less on social needs and ever more on the national defense
and its own security.
That sets the stage for ever more
conflicts between a regime apparently preparing for even more aggression abroad
and repression at home and a population that will increasingly be paying for
these unpopular measures by sacrifices that the powers that be impose on them
regardless of their wishes.
This year, the figures show, the
Russian government plans to spend 5.147 trillion rubles (70 billion US dollars)
on the military and police, with the amount rising to 6.64 trillion rubles (91
billion US dollars) by 2021.
This increase on security spending is
twice the increase in spending on the economy, five times the additional amount
for medicine, 12 times new money for education, and 53 times for support of
communal service. Spending for debt service
is slated to rise by 32 percent, but transfers to the regions to be cut by 4.6
percent, creating still more unfunded mandates there.
As the finance ministry document
shows, the government anticipates having enough money to avoid these cuts as a
result of “super income” from the sale of oil at prices above the planned 40 US
dollars a barrel; but instead of doing so, Moscow will be putting that money either
into security or into a national welfare fund.
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