A quiet reshuffling of budget lines in several Russian regions is revealing how the Kremlin is using a federal debt write-off programme to subsidise military recruitment, according to Janis Kluge, fellow at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Eastern Europe and Eurasia Group.
In mid-June, Tomsk Oblast cut its official spending on “payments to citizens participating in the special military operation” from RUB1.1bn to RUB300mn. Almost simultaneously, a new line item appeared: “Activities related to the special military operation…