Last month, the Russian government released a draft of the proposed 2026–2028 federal budget, which purports to show the near-term priorities of President Vladimir Putin.
Vladimir Milov, a Russian opposition politician who left Russia after Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, has released a pessimistic assessment of the former KGB lieutenant colonel’s chances of being able to continue to bankroll his war in Ukraine.
In his latest report for the Foundation, he projects rough times ahead for Moscow due to a series of unfavorable trends.
According to his analysis, Russia’s budgetary situation is anything but “normal.”



Well, don’t expect a popular uprising any time soon. The KGB have totally depoliticised the Russian people. They believe they have no control over the fate of their country. If Russia fails, it will be because of economic failure at a basic level, where the country’s food, transportation, and energy systems all just stop working. And nobody in Russia will care, or do anything to stop it.
It’s interesting that the KGB has engineered a country uniquely capable of letting itself die.