The Secret Money Behind Vladimir Putin's War Machine

[Purveyor]

by Andrey Biryukov
June 2, 2015 — 5:00 PM EDT

If Vladimir Putin’s ends remain mysterious, so do the means.

Putin is allocating unprecedented amounts of secret funds to accelerate Russia’s largest military buildup since the Cold War, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The part of the federal budget that is so-called black -- authorized but not itemized -- has doubled since 2010 to 21 percent and now totals 3.2 trillion rubles ($60 billion), the Gaidar Institute, an independent think tank in Moscow, estimates.

Stung by sanctions over Ukraine and oil’s plunge, Putin is turning to defense spending to revive a shrinking economy. The outlays on new tanks, missiles and uniforms highlight the growing militarization that is swelling the deficit and crowding out services such as health care. Thousands of army conscripts will be moved into commercial enterprises for the first time to aid in the rearmament effort.

“The government has two urgent tasks: strengthening security at all levels of society and promoting innovation to end the macroeconomic stagnation,” said Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies and an adviser to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. “The solution to both problems is to intensify the development of the military-industrial complex.”

Since bringing the country back from the brink of bankruptcy a decade and a half ago, Putin has increased defense spending more than 20-fold in ruble terms. In dollars, it exceeded $84 billion last year, more than any other nation except the U.S. and China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-02/putin-s-secret-budget-hides-shift-toward-war-economy

[Jackpine Radical]

1. We have at last won the Cold War.

The Russians have become us.

[leveymg]

3. And we have become the disintegrating Soviet Union. Convergence

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Yes.

Political entropy.

[bemildred]

5. You become what you hate. nt

[leveymg]

6. That's a trusim that is proven by its exceptions, let's hope for our own sake.

[bemildred]

7. A good reason to avoid hate, the way I see it. nt

[leveymg]

2. The Russian defense and black budgets are still less than a quarter of what the US spends.

In many ways, they mirror each other, but the Russian programs and ambitions are dwarfed by comparison.