SWP expert: Russia’s military spending is close to the level of the USSR
27 July 2025 14:03
Russia’s military spending has approached the level of the late Soviet Union. This assessment was made by German economist Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the Berlin-based Foundation for Science and Policy (SWP).
His commentary was published on Saturday, July 26, in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
Russia’s military spending is close to the level of the USSR
Kluge said that he took into account not only the direct military expenditures of the Russian federal budget, but also the war-related burden on regional budgets and social systems, as well as expenditures from the National Welfare Fund.
The total military spending, according to his estimates, amounted to 8-10% of Russia’s GDP. “This is not far from some estimates for the Soviet Union,” the economist said. In April 2025, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated Russia’s military spending at 7.1% of GDP in 2024.
FAZ reminds that there is still no accurate data on military spending in the late USSR.
German scientist: Russian economy will not collapse like in the USSR
Kluge urged not to compare the current economic problems of the Russian Federation with those that led to the collapse of the USSR. According to the scientist, the Russian economy can remain stable even with military spending at 15% of GDP. In this case, the income of ordinary Russians will be sharply reduced, but “the country will not collapse,” the economist said.
According to him, the reason is that Russia maintains a capitalist market system. State intervention in the economy, partial nationalization, duties and bans have not yet become something that “would completely change the economic system.”
FAZ also interviewed Russian independent economists Sergei Aleksashenko and Alexandra Prokopenko. They confirmed that it is incorrect to compare today’s Russian economy with the late USSR, because then the economy was planned.
Kluge takes into account the costs of the occupied regions of Ukraine
The FAZ article does not describe in detail what Kluge considers to be Russia’s military spending. In the SWP report of November 2024, he wrote that he included, for example, additional costs for health care or construction in the occupied regions of Ukraine.
According to the report, as of November 2024, military spending amounted to 7-8% of Russia’s GDP. This figure was already the highest since the collapse of the USSR and meant a more than 2-fold increase since the start of the war in Ukraine. in 2021, Russia spent 3.6% of GDP on defense.
