Russian defence economy: Sources and methodological approaches

The report presents an overview of available sources and methodological approaches in studies of the Russian defence economy. We present key primary and secondary sources and discuss their quality and reliability. The report may be read in its entirety as an introduction to the Russian defence economy, or used as a reference work. Nearly 70 per cent of the defence budget is classified. Open sources mainly describe spending on an aggregated level. Open sources provide information on how much money Russia spends on defense annually and Russia's prioritization of defence in relation to other public tasks. The available data also provide a relatively good understanding of expenditure on personnel and support functions such as education and medical services. Despite the fact that the investment budget is classified, it is usually also possible to derive aggregate allocations for investment and R&D with relatively high credibility. On the other hand, there is little or no information in the open budget on expenditure on nuclear weapons or Russia's new strategic weapons. It is also difficult to estimate the total costs of developing and producing new platforms and expenses for cyber and information warfare.