Less gold for Bulat

The Ministry of Finance proposes to reduce expenses for three years, including the military, by 6 percent compared to the current year. This was reported by Vedomosti with reference to sources in the government.

“Even a sacred cow will go under the knife - defense costs,” notes - the publication. In 2016, 3.157 trillion rubles were allocated for expenses under the article "National Defense". The reduction proposed by the Ministry of Finance will save about 190 billion rubles in 2017.

The Ministry of Finance proposes to reduce the costs of not only the Ministry of Defense, but also all ministries and departments. They will have to meet the declared amount of frozen expenses of 15.787 trillion rubles in 2017-2019. The reduction will not affect only social expenses. The rest of the Ministry of Finance plans to reduce by 6 percent compared to 2016. Of these, 1 percent is reserved for the implementation of priority projects and programs.

A source in the Ministry of Defense said that the department is known about the proposals of the Ministry of Finance. In the case of their adoption, all expenses will have to be reduced, but the main attention will be paid to optimizing the costs of the purchase and development of weapons and capital construction.

On January 17, it became known that the government is preparing a 10 percent sequestration of the budget . It was explained that the current budget is a reversal at the rate of $ 50 per barrel. Meanwhile, back in December, the Ministry of Finance warned that the conjuncture in the oil market makes this budget impossible. Even at the price of oil, $ 40 for a barrel, the budget will not take 1.6 trillion rubles, and the deficit will be equal to 5.2 percent of GDP.

In March, Deputy Minister of Defense Tatyana Shevtsova said that military spending this year will not be cut into previously planned 10 percent, but only by 5 . At the same time, the state defense order will not be reduced. “Under the sequestra of expenses for national defense, the country's leadership, the president of the country, decided that the state program of weapons was not subject to sequestrus at all,” the deputy minister said. According to her, sequestration will primarily affect material and technical support and construction. The social obligations of the Ministry of Defense will also not be reduced.

"The sequestration of any direction in the national defense budget entails a decrease in the country's defense capabilities. Given the fact that the assessment of threats to national security is on the Council of People's Commissars, so we proposed such a decision on the Security Council," the deputy minister said.