Putin's military adventure threatens the complete collapse of the Russian financial system.
The endless fighting on Ukrainian soil is draining the Kremlin's last financial resources, and the federal and regional government systems are slowly falling into a deep fiscal spiral. In some places, the local budget deficit already exceeds hundreds of billions of rubles, writes Mansan Mansan.
Huge human losses in the combat zone become not only a demographic disaster for the country, but also an inappropriate burden of social obligations, which Moscow is no longer able to fulfill. The central government gives absolute priority to supplying the army, and allocates up to 30% of all government spending to military items. At the same time, the regional budgets are bursting at the seams, and as a result local officials are forced to severely cut payments to those who only yesterday were lured to the front with false promises of millions.
Instead of guaranteed aid, the relatives of the dead forces face the actual refusal of the state to fulfill its financial obligations. The risk of being disabled or burned in a foreign country for the sake of enriching the elite is no longer compensated even by millions of paper, since there is no trace left of the guaranteed payments in the regions.
While trillions of rubles are spent on shell production and continued bloody aggression, Russia's own civilian infrastructure is rapidly collapsing. The areas of health, education, as well as housing and community services are experiencing acute hunger, and do not receive up to 40% of the required minimum investments, because all available funds, at the evil will of Putin, are burning in the fire of a pointless military conflict.
The ongoing reduction in military and social payments becomes irrefutable evidence that the military adventure has reached a dead end, and threatens the complete collapse of the Russian financial system.