Russia’s New Military-Related ‘Middle Class’ has Stopped Growing and Its Members are Beginning to Be Affected by Inflationary Pressures, Moscow Analyst Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 11 – Moscow’s new military related “middle class” consisting of those who have benefited from bonuses and the growth of Russia’s defense industry has stopped growing – it now numbers six to eight million people – and its members are beginning to suffer as others are from rising inflation, Fyodor Vyrin says.

            Drawing on the concept first proposed by Sber analyst Mikhail Matovnikov in 2023 (rbc.ru/economics/23/05/2024/664efda29a79479b0f5130c3?ysclid=lx4h3p1zck13294551), the DataInsight economist says that those benefited from military spending no longer feel protected from inflation (t.me/FVinsights/164 and newizv.ru/news/2025-07-11/vmesto-kartoshki-hleb-vmesto-myasa-varenaya-kolbasa-kak-inflyatsiya-menyaet-potreblenie-437409).

            Because men who accepted bonuses to fight in Ukraine or both men and women who went to work in defense industries saw their incomes after 2022 rise so rapidly, they did not share the despair many other Russians have because rising prices have put goods and services beyond their reach.

            But now with these benefits ebbing or disappearing altogether, members of the new middle class who have been among Putin’s most loyal supporters as far as the war in Ukraine is concerned have reason to think again about where the Kremlin leader is leading the country, a shift that could change this pattern.

            Indeed, the possibility that that will occur could spark dissent against Putin among some members of the political class because they will be well aware that the anger about rising prices up to now confined among the poorest strata of Russians is now spreading to those they have long considered their political base.