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Russia's wartime economy: the long-term erosion of debt and military spending

Russia's wartime economy: the long-term erosion of debt and military spending

C1🇨🇳 中文🇺🇸 English

September 18th, 2026

Russia's wartime economy: the long-term erosion of debt and military spending

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Please note: This article has been simplified for language learning purposes. Some context and nuance from the original text may have been modified or removed.

🇺🇸 English

Frictions in Russia's wartime economy are intensifying, as massive military spending causes the budget deficit to swell continuously.

俄罗斯战时经济中的摩擦正在加剧巨额军事开支使预算赤字不断膨胀

Consumers and businesses have grown more pessimistic.

消费者和企业更加悲观

Growth has already slowed.

增长已经放缓

However, economists say that none of this signals an impending financial crisis or economic collapse.

然而经济学家表示这些都不预示着金融危机经济崩溃即将来临

Because the war with Iran has kept oil prices high, revenue from crucial oil exports has been sustained, and the government is, at least for now, able to find the funds to pay for its invasion of Ukraine, which has now lasted four and a half years.

由于伊朗战争导致油价高企至关重要的石油出口收入得以维持政府至少目前能够找到资金来支付已持续四年半入侵乌克兰行动

At the same time, steadily falling unemployment, together with the generous funding the government has provided to impoverished regions, has gone a considerable way toward suppressing consumer discontent.

与此同时,持续走低的失业率以及政府面向贫困地区所提供的慷慨拨款,在相当程度上起到了压制消费者不满情绪的作用。

As Russia's carefully orchestrated parliamentary elections began on Friday and concluded on Sunday, this situation dovetailed neatly with the Kremlin's narrative of stability.

在俄罗斯精心操控的议会选举于周五开始、周日结束之际,这一局面恰好与克里姆林宫关于稳定的叙事相契合。

But economists warn that longer-term problems are eroding the foundationsand could one day trigger a crisis.

但经济学家警告称,更长期的问题正在侵蚀根基——有朝一日可能引发危机。

Consumer confidence indicators have been declining steadily since peaking in 2024-25, when increased military spending was driving up growth and wages.

消费者信心指标自2024-25年达到峰值以来持续下滑当时军费开支增加正在推高增长和工资

More recently, consumers have also had to contend with rising petrol prices and shortages, caused by Ukrainian drone strikes that destroyed refineries.

最近消费者还要应对汽油价格上涨和短缺原因是乌克兰无人机袭击摧毁了炼油厂

Many small businesses have also lost inventory and customers as a result of attacks targeting the online retailers Wildberries and Ozon.

许多小企业因针对在线零售商Wildberries和Ozon的袭击而失去了库存和客户

Meanwhile, growth has fallen back from its peak annual expansion of over 4% in 2023-24.

与此同时增长已从2023-24年逾4%年扩张峰值回落。

The government forecasts growth of 0.6% this year; the economy contracted in the first quarter before rebounding in the second.

政府预计今年增长0.6%经济在第一季度陷入萎缩随后在第二季度出现反弹

The consumer confidence index compiled by the Levada Center, an independent Russian polling organization, fell to 94 in the summer, down from 116 in the spring and summer of 2025.

由独立俄罗斯民调机构列瓦达中心编制的消费者信心指数在夏季降至94低于2025年春夏的116

A reading below 100 indicates that those with a negative view of consumer confidence outnumber those with a positive one.

低于100的读数表明消费者信心消极者多于积极者

In Moscow, whenever the topic of elections comes up, people's responses tend to revolve around fundamental concerns about pensions and prices.

在莫斯科,每当选举话题被提起,民众的回应往往围绕着对养老金与物价的基本关切展开。

Alexander Vertukhin, a 72-year-old retired military prosecutor, pointed out that the government should rightly focus on the goal of "enabling retirees to live a dignified life."

72岁的退休军事检察官亚历山大·韦尔图欣指出,政府理应将重心置于“让退休人员过上体面的生活”这一目标之上。

As for his personal circumstances, he asserted, "I am doing quite well financially and in every other respect."

至于他个人的境况,他声称:“我在经济以及其他各个方面都过得相当不错。”

Dmitry Kirillin, 26, said: "Overall, I hope housing will become more affordable, and that retirees will be able to live with dignity rather than merely scraping by.

26岁的德米特里·基里林表示:“总体而言我期望住房变得更为可负担,期望退休人员能够体面地生活而非仅仅勉强维持生存

In addition, I also hope that domestic travel will become more affordable.

此外我还希望在国内旅行能更加经济实惠

These are the main things that come to mind first; if I thought about it more carefully, I could probably list quite a few more."

这些便是我首先想到的主要事项倘若再仔细思量我大概还能列举出更多。”

He added, "I hope prices will rise more slowly, if that is possible under the current circumstances."

他补充说:“我希望物价上涨得更慢一些,如果在当前形势下有可能的话。”

Chris Weafer, chief executive of Macro-Advisory Ltd., a consultancy operating in the former Soviet Union, said that the gasoline situation and the attack on Wildberries had made the war more visible to people, but did not amount to a crisis.

在前苏联地区开展业务的咨询公司Macro-Advisory Ltd.首席执行官克里斯·威弗表示汽油状况Wildberries遭袭事件战争对人们来说更加可见并不构成危机

He described the economy as being in a state of "tolerable stability," with public sentiment amounting to "grumbling" rather than protest.

将经济描述为处于尚可忍受的稳定状态公众情绪抱怨并非抗议

Weaver said: "The economy is currently under pressureit has stalled into a state that is stable yet not growing.

威弗表示:“经济目前正承受着压力——它已停滞到一种稳定却不增长的状态。

However, it is not facing a recession."

然而,它并未面临衰退。”

He said that most people "have not been greatly affected," and that the Ukrainian attacks "only disrupt your shopping habits, which will not change public support for the Kremlin."

他说,大多数人“并没有受到太大影响”,乌克兰的袭击“只是因为你的购物习惯被打乱,这不会改变公众对克里姆林宫的支持。”

President Vladimir Putin's approval rating has shown a downward trend in recent months, yet it remains above the level recorded before the war broke out in 2022.

弗拉基米尔·普京总统的支持率在近几个月内呈现出下滑态势,然而依旧维持在2022年战争爆发之前的水平之上。

A key sign of the strain lies in Russia's budget deficit, as well as in the various efforts the government has made to find new sources of funding.

压力的一个关键征兆在于俄罗斯的预算赤字以及政府为寻觅新的资金来源所作出的种种努力。

Putin has resorted to raising the value-added tax that consumers pay at the checkout, increasing a range of other fees, and tightening taxation on small businesses.

普京已诉诸于提高消费者在收银台缴纳的增值税上调一系列其他费用收紧对小企业的征税

Yet the deficit has continued to climb.

然而赤字仍在持续攀升

By the end of July, budget data showed that the deficit amounted to 2.8% of annual economic outputnearly twice the original annual budget target.

截至7月底预算数据显示赤字年度经济产出的2.8%——几乎是原定年度预算目标的两倍

The available resources in Russia's Reserve Fund have fallen to 1.6% of GDP, which means the Kremlin will need to borrow from domestic banks.

俄罗斯储备基金中的可用资源已降至GDP的1.6%这意味着克里姆林宫需要向国内银行借款

However, this also means that it will have to bear high borrowing costs.

然而这也就意味着不得不承担高昂的借贷成本

According to Janis Kluge, an expert on Russian fiscal affairs at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, interest rates on Russian bonds are as high as 17%.

德国国际与安全事务研究所俄罗斯财政问题专家亚尼斯·克卢格称,俄罗斯债券利率高达17%

In a recent report, he wrote that budgetary pressures "have intensified doubts about how much longer Russia can sustain this war."

他在最近的一份报告中写道预算压力加剧了人们对俄罗斯还能维持这场战争多久的怀疑”。

The Russian central bank has kept interest rates persistently high in order to curb the inflation triggered by war spending.

俄罗斯央行持续维持高利率以抑制战争开支所引发的通胀

This has placed pressure on civilian enterprises that cannot obtain privileged credit in the way defence companies can.

给那些无法像国防企业那样获得特权信贷的民用企业带来了压力

Another source of war funding is the increase in private lending by Russia's compliant banks to defence-related enterprises, which means that these debts do not appear in the deficit figures.

战争资金另一来源,是俄罗斯顺从的银行国防相关企业增加私人贷款这意味着这些债务并未出现在赤字数据中

Viewed from a long-term perspective, Western sanctions have made it difficult for Russia to obtain new investment that could be used to raise its economic productivity.

从长远角度审视,西方制裁致使俄罗斯难以获取可用于提升经济生产率的新型投资。

Risk factors such as high-risk spending, low growth, rising debt, and elevated borrowing costs have led some economists to warn that, although the Russian economy has not yet collapsed, its structural foundations are being dangerously eroded.

高风险支出、低增长、不断上升的债务以及高企的借贷成本等风险因素,使一些经济学家警告称,尽管俄罗斯经济尚未崩溃,但其结构性基础正危险地遭到侵蚀。

Torbjörn Becker of the Stockholm School of Economics points out that the current trajectory is "unsustainable."

斯德哥尔摩经济学院托尔比约恩·贝克尔指出当前的发展轨迹不可持续”。

However, "there remains a high degree of uncertainty as to when exactly the crisis will hit."

然而,“危机究竟何时降临仍存在高度的不确定性。”

Before the outbreak of the Iran war, oil export revenues had at one point shrunk to less than $10 billion a month; by June, however, this figure had rebounded strongly to $15.8 billion, and in July it reached $13.8 billion.

在伊朗战争爆发前石油出口收入曾一度萎缩至每月不足100亿美元然而截至6月这一数字已强劲回升至158亿美元7月则达到138亿美元

Becker wrote that as long as energy prices remain persistently high, Russia's budget constraints "may effectively disappear."

贝克尔写道,只要能源价格持续居高不下,俄罗斯的预算约束“可能会有效消失”。

In his view, to change this, tougher measures must be prioritized to crack down on Russia's tanker fleet that evades sanctions.

他认为要改变这一点必须优先采取更严厉的措施打击俄罗斯逃避制裁的油轮船队

Money allocated to defence factories and enlistment bonuses has proved a boon for Russia's provinces, which are poorer than Moscow and St Petersburg.

用于国防工厂入伍奖金的资金已成为俄罗斯各省的福音这些省份的贫困程度甚于莫斯科圣彼得堡

Because factories tend to operate at full capacity, the national unemployment rate stands at just 2.2%.

由于工厂往往满负荷运转全国失业率仅为2.2%

According to a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Russia's defence industry, since the invasion of Ukraine the Uralvagonzavod tank factory in Nizhny Tagil, in the Urals region, has expanded its workforce from around 20,000 to more than 38,000 and has launched round-the-clock production.

根据战略与国际研究中心最近一份关于俄罗斯国防工业的报告自入侵乌克兰以来位于乌拉尔地区下塔吉尔的乌拉尔车辆厂坦克工厂已将其劳动力从约2万人扩充至超过3.8万人并启动了24小时生产

Kupol, which manufactures drones and surface-to-air missiles, is the largest industrial enterprise in the Udmurt region along the Volga, and its output more than doubled in 2025.

生产无人机和地对空导弹的库波尔伏尔加河沿岸乌德穆尔特地区最大的工业企业其产量在2025年增加了一倍多

A shortage of skilled labour is constraining production at defence firms and across the wider economy, and the problem has been compounded by the emigration of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly young, fearful of conscription and political repression.

熟练劳动力短缺正在制约国防企业乃至整体经济的生产,而由于担心被征召和政治压制,数十万主要是年轻人移居国外,使这一问题更加严重。

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that month-to-month deficit figures are volatile, and said, "This is not a figure that should cause concern. Macroeconomic stability is absolutely guaranteed."

克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫指出,逐月赤字数据存在波动性,并称“这不是一个应该引起担忧的数字。宏观经济稳定绝对得到了保障。”

However, Andrei Klepach, chief economist at the Russian state development bank VEB.RF, warned in a speech that, because of sanctions and economic isolation, "we are falling behind in the global technological and economic competition," and that "we cannot win the competition in this war of attrition."

然而俄罗斯国有开发银行VEB.RF首席经济学家安德烈·克列帕奇在一次演讲中警告称由于制裁和经济孤立,“我们在世界技术和经济竞争中正在落后”,并且我们无法在这场消耗战中赢得竞争”。

He was dismissed from his position.

他遭到了解雇。

Dasha Litvinova, based in Tallinn, Estonia, also contributed to this article.

爱沙尼亚塔林的达莎·利特维诺娃对此文亦有贡献。

September 18th, 2026

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