The Russian State Duma has approved the country’s draft federal budget for the next three years in the first reading, news reports said on Thursday, the Voice of Russia reports.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov described the would-be budget as a social and investment issues-oriented document.
He said that the next few years will see Russia’s federal budget depend fewer on oil and gas revenues.
According to the document, Russia is going to boost annual defense spending by 59 percent to almost 3 trillion rubles ($97 billion) in 2015, up from $61 billion in 2012
“Targeted national defense spending as a percentage of GDP will amount to 3.2 percent in 2013, 3.4 percent in 2014 and 3.7 percent in 2015,” Defense Committee chairman Vladimir Komoedov is quoted as saying in the committee’s conclusion on the draft budget for 2013-2015.
Russian Duma passes draft federal budget in first reading
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