Putin Scales Back Military Spending As Russia Teeters On Recession

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced plans to reduce military spending after top Kremlin officials warned that Russia is “on the brink of recession,” Antonia Langford reported for The Telegraph.

Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov recently said Russia was nearing a recession.

Speaking at an economic summit of five post-Soviet states in Minsk on Friday, Putin said defense spending would be cut “next year and the year after, over the next three-year period.”

In response to NATO’s plans to raise defense budgets to 5% of GDP, Putin said alliance members would be spending on “purchases from the U.S. and supporting their military-industrial complex.”

He asked, “So who is preparing for some kind of aggressive actions? Us or them?”

His remarks followed recent warnings from Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, who said Russia was nearing a recession. Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina also cautioned that Russia’s wartime economic momentum—fueled by massive defense-sector spending—was grinding to a halt.

“We grew for two years at a fairly high pace because free resources were activated,” she said. “We need to understand that many of those resources have truly been exhausted.”