Russia plans to increase defense spending next year from the current 3.9% of GDP to 6% ($112 billion), Bloomberg reports.

Defense spending will exceed social spending, despite the upcoming presidential election in March and Western sanctions.

Also, classified expenditures will almost double - from 6.5 trillion rubles to 11.1 trillion, accounting for 30% of total budget expenditures.

Moscow expects federal budget revenues to reach more than 35 trillion rubles, which is 22% more than in 2023, and the deficit will be halved from 1.8% to 0.9% of GDP.

Revenues from oil and gas sales are expected to grow by almost 25%.

It should be noted that defense spending in the draft budget of Ukraine for 2024 will amount to UAH 1 trillion 685 billion. This is more than half of all budget expenditures. Or 21.6% of Ukraine's projected GDP. At the current official NBU exchange rate, this is $46 billion.