D. Abramov / Vedomosti

The draft federal budget for 2014 in terms of military expenditures turned out to be more classified than the draft of the previous year. In the response of the defense committee, published on the website of the Duma database of draft laws, it is stipulated for the first time that "the formation of the federal budget <...> was carried out in terms of the group of types of expenditures, due to which significant volumes of planned appropriations of the Ministry of Defense <...> including their equipping with weapons, military and special equipment <...> could not be fully analyzed by the defense committee on the basis of the draft law and the materials attached to it." Due to the secrecy, the committee in its conclusion, unlike the conclusion of 2012, was unable to provide a figure for expenditures on the purchase of weapons. From last year's review it follows that expenditures for these purposes in 2013 were to amount to 1 trillion rubles, in 2014 - 1.2 trillion rubles, and in 2015 - more than 1.7 trillion rubles, while last week Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his deputy Yuri Borisov stated that there would be no reduction in expenditures on weapons purchases.

According to Gaidar Institute expert Vasily Zatsepin, the transition to three-year planning in 2007 led to a significant reduction in the transparency of the military budget, and the transition to the program principle, which is happening now, has become another step in its classification. This will lead to the fact that in 2016, 24.8% of the expenses of the entire federal budget will become secret and top secret, says the expert. In this year's budget, 14.8% of expenses were classified as closed.

At the same time, the committee's response contains some interesting information that has not been published before. Thus, in connection with the introduction of mandatory insurance, the document for the first time names the total number of aircraft and helicopters of the Russian Armed Forces - 1,607 units. The day before, the committee chairman Vladimir Komoyedov stated that the budgeted expenditures on fuel and lubricants are insufficient and in the planned amount (59.7 billion rubles) will lead to a reduction in the volume of exercises and the impossibility of maintaining the achieved flight time of 100-120 hours for pilots and the sea time of naval crews, and they should be increased to 69.1 billion rubles. At the same time, the conclusion states that large-scale strategic exercises and surprise combat readiness checks similar to those conducted this year require an additional 25,000 tons of fuel, since they involve up to 200-300 tanks, 1,500-2,000 units of other armored and automotive equipment, over 100 aircraft, and up to 120 ships and vessels of the Navy. And fulfilling the president's instructions to demonstrate the presence of the fleet in the World Ocean requires the involvement of up to 76 ships and vessels with a total duration of their presence at sea of 5,000 hours, which requires another 43,000 tons of diesel fuel.

Combat training and social spending, not the purchase of hardware, should be among the priority goals of the military budget, says Konstantin Makienko, an expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. If there is not enough money for priorities, spending on purchasing weapons can be reduced, he believes.

There are many secrets, but little fuel.