 Putin approves Russian budget with record spending on prolonging war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the federal budget for 2024 to 2026 allocating record spending on the war against Ukraine according to the Institute for the Study of War. In his 28th of November speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed the concept of what he called Russian identity supposedly consisting of two parts, the Russian nation which is at the heart of Russian identity and claimed to include Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians and the broader Russian world comprising other non-Eastern Slavic ethnic groups both in modern Russia and in the former lands of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, Putin signed a law that significantly boosted Russia's spending in 2024 including record expenditures on the army and the defense industry. The federal budget for 2024 envisages 36 trillion and 66 rubles or 402.5 billion in government spending and a budget deficit of 1.6 trillion rubles or 9.25 billion US dollars. The report notes that Russia's finance ministry reportedly allocated 6041 trillion rubles or 72.1 billion for defense in 2023 although this figure is likely higher bearing in mind that the lion's share of the Russian budget is still classified. The roughly one third or even more of the federal budget allocated to defense spending represents a record high for such expenditures. Analysts say the federal budget does not cover all of Russia's defense spending as the Kremlin relies on regional budgets and private businesses to boost funding for ongoing military efforts. The draft budgets for 2025 and 2026 envisage roughly the same level of spending as the 2024 budget respectively indicating that the Kremlin plans to devote a substantial part of its resources to maintaining the ongoing war against Ukraine.