War Spending and Budget Deficits: Russia’s Economic Challenges

After the default,

I had to work nights with

Primakov and Maslyukov,

and Gerashchenko, drafting a rescue budget.

Back then, there was no war,

but in war, I repeat,

every other ruble is burned up and lost.

And so, of the 43 trillion in revenues,

that exist, we must bear in mind that half will go

toward these purposes. Plus, there is a huge gap

of roughly five-plus trillion every three years.

The question arises:

how are we going to patch this up?

The president's directive to

reach global growth rates, they

are above three percent,

we have not reached them in three years.

The directive to unite society: the rich will get richer,

and the poor will keep getting poorer.

And the directive for a breakthrough in new

technologies— there are no adequate resources

under any of those budget items.