Russia Plans $202 Billion Defense Budget for 2027, Highest Since War Began, Budget Documents Show

Russia plans to spend 17.1 trillion roubles ($202.6 billion) on defense in 2027, according to budget documents seen by Reuters on September 28, 2026. The figure is around 27% more than the 13.5 trillion roubles originally budgeted for that year and the highest since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022.

The 2027 line compares with the 12.1 trillion roubles the government had planned to spend on defense in 2026. Over the next three years, total defense spending will amount to 50 trillion roubles ($591.7 billion), according to the documents seen by Reuters. The same documents raise the government's estimate of the 2026 budget deficit to 3.2% of GDP, from 1.6%, with total budget spending in 2026 rising 13.2% to 48.6 trillion roubles, or 20.9% of GDP.

The documents also point to heavier borrowing. State debt is set to rise to 21.7% of GDP in 2027 from 19.9% in 2026, and total borrowing in 2027 will increase by 43% to 7.7 trillion roubles, according to the documents seen by Reuters.

Bloomberg reported on September 29 that military spending of 17.1 trillion roubles in 2027 would represent about 35% of the government's planned 48.8 trillion roubles in total expenditures, the highest share since the invasion began. The extra spending pushes the planned 2027 deficit to 2.2% of GDP, against an earlier target of 1.2%, Bloomberg reported.

The plan extends a steep upward trend already visible in GlobalMilitary.net's own country data. In the military expenditure series compiled from the CIA World Factbook, expressed in current US dollars, Russia spent $59.7 billion in 2020 (4.0% of GDP), $73.7 billion in 2021 (4.0%), $103.1 billion in 2022 (4.5%), $103.6 billion in 2023 (5.0%) and $152.2 billion in 2024 (7.0%), the most recent year available for Russia in that series. The 2024 figure is about 2.5 times the 2020 figure in the series behind the site's defense budget ranking.

Set against the same series for other major spenders, the scale of the 2027 plan stands out. In 2025 the United States spent $920.0 billion (3.2% of GDP), Germany $112.5 billion (2.4%), the United Kingdom $88.5 billion (2.4%), France $66.4 billion (2.1%) and Poland $41.3 billion (4.5%); China spent $281.2 billion (1.5%) in 2024. One caveat applies to any such comparison: Russia's "national defense" budget line reported by Reuters and Bloomberg and the Factbook military-expenditure series are different measures, and the 2027 figure is a plan converted at Reuters' exchange rate rather than an outturn, so the comparison with other countries is indicative rather than like-for-like. On that indicative basis, the planned 2027 defense line alone exceeds Germany's 2025 military expenditure, a gap visible in the site's Germany-Russia comparison. Russia ranks third in GlobalMilitary.net's ATLAS military power index, behind the United States and China.

The government is expected to submit the draft budget to the State Duma by October 1, Reuters reported. Until parliament passes the budget law, the 17.1 trillion rouble defense line remains a government proposal rather than an appropriation, and the figures above may still change during the legislative process.