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Military Budget Essay

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In late October 2016 the Russian government announced it was preparing to slash government spending across the board over the next three years. Deep cuts are looming for health, education and defence — which is slated for a 27 per cent reduction in expenditure in 2017, according to a draft budget that the government submitted to parliament. The government forecasted that gross domestic product has dropped by 0.6 per cent in 2016, a third straight annual contraction. As part of its plan to reduce Russia’s fiscal deficit from 3.7 per cent of GDP this year to 1.2 per cent in 2019, the draft budget calls for a 1 per cent cut in total federal expenditure in 2017 and further 1.3 per cent and 0.33 per cent reductions in 2018 and 2019, …show more content…

Moreover, most have families, and thus “no fewer than 40,000 people are suffering” as a result of defence ministry malfeasance. Another, more critical effect of this ‘build-up’ in the military has been the chronic deficiency in officers. In February 2017, the chief of the Main Directorate for Personnel within the Russian Ministry of Defence, Colonel General Viktor Goremykin, announced that, in 2016, the Armed forces found 11,000 officers for positions that otherwise would have gone empty (Krasnaya Zvezda, February 5). In his words, the military used “non-standard” methods to fill these staffing gaps. Reserve officers who left the Armed Forces were recruited again. It is worth noting that, on February 22, while speaking before the State Duma (lower chamber of parliament), defence Minister Sergei Shoigu clarified that due to shortages of personnel in 2015, 15,000 troops previously dismissed had been returned to service (TASS February 22). Obviously, this, practice continued in 2016. The situation of Russia’s military pilots is particularly critical. dDefence Minister Shoigu revealed that the deficit reached 1,300 pilots. To resolve this massive shortfall, the professional lifespan of pilots in the Armed Forces has been extended by five years (TASS

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