A terrible budget secret

The draft federal budget for 2019 classes 17% of expenses

In the government draft federal budget for 2019, the number of classified expenses increased. The secret expenses of the Russian budget will exceed 3 trillion rubles, which is 2.9% of the Russian GDP. This figure looks even more impressive if you take into account that it is 17% of all expenses of the federal budget. What exactly does our terrible budget secret hide?

The introduction of secret articles into the budget can be called global practice. However, even in countries with very large defense expenses, such as the United States and Israel, only a very limited list of expenses related to special operations and counter -terrorism activities is classified. The same laconic list is also implied by the current Russian law on state secret. The authors of the draft budget are clearly improvised with law enforcement, when they classify entire sectors of expenses.

Moreover, this applies not only to expenses on national security (here, for example, articles related to the border service and almost entirely - for special services are completely classified here), but also paradoxically the costs of the media, physical culture, education and healthcare. Moreover, according to government plans, it will be necessary to increase budget secrecy further, and by 2021 it will be brought to 21% of the budget or 4 trillion rubles.

According to experts of the Gaidar Institute, secrecy reduces the level of our understanding of what is happening in the national economy. It becomes more difficult to track where and how the money is spent, and how the budget affects the state of the markets.

In short, you cannot simultaneously have opaque state expenses and high -quality public administration.

And therefore, the classified budget prevents the economy from growing. And then you have to choose priorities. As in many other issues, in budget planning, the state prefers the fate of the intelligence saboteur for itself. Secrets are more valued than the interests of Russian business and consumers. Budget planning is carried out in a special operation mode, and then military awards will be given out for it.

Politically, the meaning of what is happening is even easier: before the fifth part of state money, it is officially withdrawn from public control.

With the presentation of Alexei Navalny ten years ago, state procurement monitoring became a type of national sports, and this, of course, had to do something.

The sons of the Prosecutor General Chaika assigned secret names, and the budget was gradually covered with state secret. The official position is that taxpayers' money is spent where it is necessary, and try to smash the details in this matter is to undermine the country's defense capabilities. Only traitors and the “fifth column” can demand a transparent budget, while statesmen willingly give the last ruble to any whim of the government.

Such a design could be believable, provided that it is unconditional confidence in the authorities from citizens. But according to all sociological data, this is trust right now - after the triumphal pension reform that laid the foundation for the surplus and secret budget - falls. At the same time, even the uncity of state expenses in Russia are extremely ineffective - so citizens are constantly overpaying for everything. So, perhaps, the secret of the 2019 budget is precisely that secrecy is needed not so much to protect against foreign spies, but so that the inhabitants of Russia ask less questions.