Muscovites divided over military budget explosion

Irina, an 80-year-old Muscovite, fumes: “It’s scandalous! We must end this war. Spending the budget on this war is a crime.” In Moscow, others believe that the announced explosion of military investments will benefit Russia.

The Russian budget bill for 2025, unveiled on Monday, provides that the country’s “Defense” and “Security” spending will represent around 40% of the public budget, not counting the numerous investments classified as secret.

This avalanche of spending confirms the Kremlin’s determination to continue its large-scale offensive against Ukraine at all costs, despite a considerable human and economic cost.

Another sign of accelerated militarization of the country, President Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree ordering an increase of nearly 15% in the number of soldiers, bringing it to 1.5 million, which will represent 2% of the active population. .

In the streets of Moscow, a dynamic megacity little affected by the military mobilization, several residents interviewed by AFP on Tuesday did not hide their indignation.

Another retiree also called Irina immediately declares that she is opposed to the conflict: “I am a pacifist, I am a Christian, and Christianity is a religion which is opposed to war.”

Aged 70, she does not wish to give her last name. Repression in Russia crushes any public questioning of the conflict with prison sentences and fines. Despite everything, she dares to criticize the increase in military spending.

“We lack everything. We have nothing to heal ourselves, nothing to do. We receive 25,000 rubles (from retirement per month, or around 240 euros), it’s trifles (…) We’re all tired of being poor… But what happens in times of war ? Everything is decided at the top and we are slaves.”

Since 2022, the Kremlin has largely reoriented its economy towards the war effort, developing its military-industrial complex at high speed, recruiting hundreds of thousands of employees.

The authorities anticipate a long conflict and do not seem concerned by the risks of increased dependence of the economy on military orders, at a time when inflation is around 9%, reducing purchasing power in an already very unequal society. .

However, the Russian Central Bank deplores labor shortages, consequences of the departure of hundreds of thousands of men, some in exile abroad, others on the front, and is alarmed at a risk, in the long term, of “stagflation”.

For Elena, another retiree, 68, these massive expenditures are incongruous because the Russian population “does not live very well” and only “a certain elite” benefits from it. And it rejects the official discourse which makes this conflict an existential war in line with that waged by the USSR against Nazi Germany.

This “patriotism is, I think, lying to a certain extent because we cannot wish war (…) on anyone,” reasons Elena.

Vladimir, a 49-year-old lawyer, supports these military investments on the condition that they have no impact on social spending: “education, medicine, other social programs…”

“In the current situation, the increase in (military) spending is understandable,” continues this Muscovite, carrying his child in his arms.

Three other men met by AFP agree to spend more to continue hostilities against Ukraine.

“No one can fight without money,” judges Artour Roustamov, 62 years old. “If I want to live in Russia, I must support the preservation of our state,” he adds.

For Vladimir, 50, an employee of the high-tech sector, Russia faces the NATO powers which support kyiv and “we must therefore spend on defense”. “No one but ourselves can defend ourselves,” he says.

The floods of money which will further flood the defense sector will be beneficial for the Russian economy, believes Oleg, 43, an economic analyst.

In addition to the companies of the military-industrial complex, “related industrial sectors will have work, people will be hired in these companies and therefore people will have income, this will create prosperity and bring in contributions to the budget”, assures Oleg .

Before concluding: “Everything our president and our country does now will be beneficial.”