Putin’s new budget is boosting major infrastructure spending by making deep cuts in military spending.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russian military spending fell by 20 percent last year, the first major decrease in two decades. While critics dispute the amount and suggest there may be budgetary machinations at work, most analysts agree that the share of military spending as a percentage of GDP is set to fall, from 6.6 percent in 2016, to 5 percent this year and to 3 percent by the end of Putin’s current term in 2024.
Putin’s priority shift coincides with a war weariness on the part of Russians.
For Putin and Russia to get the full benefit of military cuts, then Russia should pull back from the Ukraine and get the sanctions lifted. The restoration of economic growth requires an easing of sanctions and better access to Western finance and technology
Russia’s Putin signed Executive Order On National Goals and Strategic Objectives of the Russian Federation through to 2024.
a) ensure sustainable natural population growth;
b) increase life expectancy to 78 years (80 years by 2030);
c) ensure sustainable growth of real wages, as well as the growth of pensions above inflation level;
d) cut poverty in half;
e) improve housing conditions for at least 5 million households annually;
f) accelerate technological development and increase the number of organizations engaged in technological innovation to 50 percent of the total;
g) speed up the introduction of digital technologies in the economy and the social sphere;
h) take Russia into the top five largest economies, ensure economic growth rates exceeding international rates, while at the same time maintaining macroeconomic stability, including inflation under 4 percent;
i) support high-productivity export-oriented businesses in the basic sectors of the economy, primarily, in manufacturing and the agroindustrial complex, based on modern technology and staffed with highly qualified employees.
