Falling oil revenues, soaring war costs squeeze Russia's finances
The budget deficit of Moscow has increased dramatically after Western sanctions have caused a huge decrease in oil and gas revenues.
Russia's deficit plunged to a deeper level in February. This puts pressure on Russia to balance the rising costs of the war in Ukraine with the falling oil revenues due to a series of Western sanctions.
The budget deficit totaled 1.75 trillion roubles ($29.13 billion) last month, compared with 1.23 trillion roubles in January, the finance ministry said on Monday.
February is typically a month of high spending as the government pays out large sums of money in pensions and other social benefits. This year, the ministry had to find an extra 200 billion roubles to finance the war in Ukraine, which has pushed up military spending by 30 percent.