That's nearly 12 budgets of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, or 70 budgets of the Smolensk Region.

As follows from the latest amendments submitted by the government to the State Duma, the budget will receive by the end of 2025, 36,5 trillion rubles - this is two trillion less than planned.

However, there are no plans to cut spending, which will amount to 42,3 trillion rubles.

Thus, the expected budget deficit is 5,7 trillion rubles (2,6% of GDP).

How to notes According to the Agency, this is the largest hole in the Russian budget in three and a half years of war with Ukraine (the last time the budget deficit exceeded 2,6% of GDP was in 2020, when it was 3,8%).

To compensate for the shortfall, officials are proposing to increase VAT from 20% to 22%. Last week, the Ministry of Finance claimedthat this measure is aimed “primarily at financing defense and security.”

Incidentally, the new version of the amendments significantly increases the number of classified provisions related to defense and security. Furthermore, the government also plans to end next year with a budget deficit, estimating it at 3,7 trillion rubles (the originally planned budget deficit for this year was 1,1 trillion rubles, or 0,5% of GDP).