Russia spent a record 10.7 trillion rubles ($123.4 billion) on its military and weapons production during the first half of 2026, RBC-Ukraine reported.
The outlet cited estimates by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, based on Russian Finance Ministry data.
Moscow’s budget for this year initially projected defense spending at 6.7 percent of GDP, but actual military-related expenditure reached an estimated 10.5 percent in the first half, 1.5 times the planned level.
Spending increased by 30 percent, or 2.4 trillion rubles ($28.4 billion), compared with the first half of last year.
It was 65 percent higher than during the same period in 2024, 145 percent above the 2023 level, and 285 percent higher than in 2022.
Compared with prewar 2021, Russia’s military expenditure has increased more than fivefold.
Record Budget
Moscow spent an average of 1.7 trillion rubles ($20.6 billion) per month on the military and weapons production between January and June.
This was equivalent to 59 billion rubles ($681 million) per day and 2.5 billion rubles ($28.9 million) per hour.
Military-related expenditure accounted for 43.8 percent of all federal budget spending during the period, a record, according to data cited by RBC Ukraine.
It was also equivalent to 57.3 percent of the federal government’s revenue.
In the first half of 2025, military spending accounted for 39.2 percent of federal expenditures and 46.8 percent of government revenue.
Before the war, the respective shares stood at 20 percent and 19.8 percent.
Since the beginning of 2022, Russia has spent an estimated 57.1 trillion rubles ($660 billion) on the military and weapons purchases.
That figure is close to the Russian Central Bank’s total gold and foreign exchange reserves, valued at $720.3 billion.
It is also more than twice the estimated $292.8-billion value of the country’s gold reserves.
