End the war”: War with Ukraine raises protests in Russia, puts Kremlin in trouble

Russia’s plan to hike defense spending next year has divided opinion in Moscow, with some objecting to devoting more money to the Ukraine conflict while many face a squeeze in living standards.

Russia is to spend more than 40 percent of its total budget on defence and security next year, more than the money allocated for social welfare and education combined.

“It is an outrage,” 80-year-old pensioner Irina told AFP in Moscow. “We need to end this war, and spending the budget on war is a crime.”

The government promised major investment in social support ahead of Monday’s budget announcement, promising to make it a top priority.

But the $145-billion draft defense budget suggests military spending has crowded out other sectors.

Planned spending on “national defence” is more than twice that allocated to areas Moscow labels as “social policy.”

“The population of the country does not live so well,” pensioner Elena, 68, told AFP.

“I am generally against military action of any kind, in any country, in ours, and in general the whole world,” she said.

The Kremlin has heavily militarized Russia’s economy since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, spending huge sums on arms and army salaries.

That spending boom has fueled economic growth, helping the Kremlin buck initial predictions of a recession when it was hit with unprecedented Western sanctions in 2022.

But it has caused surging inflation, a sensitive issue for many in a country where memories of economic instability following the Soviet collapse run deep.

“There is not enough for anything at all. Not for treatment, not for anything,” said 70-year-old Irina, who complained her pension was only 25,000 rubles or $260 a month.

“It’s pennies. People are unprotected,” she said. “It’s a shame and a disgrace that the country has no money to treat its own children,” she added.

Moscow had already ramped up military spending to levels not seen since the Soviet Union era.

The latest planned increase in spending will take Russia’s defense budget to 13.5 trillion rubles or $145 billion in 2025, an annual increase of almost 30 percent. Some were supportive of the plans. “If it is not to the detriment of education, medicine, some other social programs… In the current situation, an increase in the amount of funding is understandable,” said 49-year-old lawyer Vladimir. Another resident named Vladimir, 50, told AFP the spending was needed for “protection.” “In the current times, it is necessary to spend money on defence, because NATO is playing against us,” the IT worker said. “We have to do something and we can’t do it any other way.”