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Russia’s military spending in 2024, when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), exceeded that of the European Union and the United Kingdom combined by nearly $5 billion, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said Wednesday.
Total military expenditures in Russia grew by 41.9% in real terms to 13.1 trillion rubles ($145.9 billion) last year, according to IISS’s annual military balance report.
When adjusted for PPP, which accounts for differences in currency value, Russia’s 2024 defense spending amounted to $462 billion. By comparison, the combined defense budgets of the EU and U.K. rose by 11.7% in real terms to $457 billion last year.
The year 2024 marked the 10th consecutive year of defense spending growth in Europe, according to IISS, a London-based think tank focused on security and defense issues. Global military spending, meanwhile, reached $2.57 trillion in 2024, an increase of 7.4%.
“The main concerns in Europe remain the sustainability of recent increases, the feasibility of any further increases in light of [U.S.] President Trump’s desire to see spending rise, and the potential for weakened U.S. defense commitments,” IISS said in the new report.
Russia’s economy has increasingly operated on a war footing since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
For 2025, Moscow has allocated a record 13.5 trillion rubles ($133.6 billion) to national defense, accounting for nearly 40% of total government spending.
