Decision of the Federal Council No 52, 20.12.2018

The YABLOKO party considers the federal budget for 2019 and 2020-2021 to be a desperate attempt by the authorities to preserve the current state of affairs. The bloated public sector of the economy, total inefficiency and corruption are the basis of the present system and do not allow the country to develop. The archaic structure of the economy, its complete dependence on natural resources and the foreign policy that has made Russia a target for sanctions are leading our country to further stagnation.

In the face of external pressure resulting from the aggressive policy of the Russian leadership, the key focus of the financial policy was accumulation of funds without a coherent and transparent strategy for their further spending. The size of the National Welfare Fund until the year 2021 will increase three times and will amount to almost 15 trillion roubles (80 per cent of the budget for 2019), while the social areas of the federal budget remain underfunded.

The policies of the leadership of Russia lead to total militarisation of the society and, consequently, huge expenses for the military and law enforcement power block, which is unjustified by external threats or internal needs of the country, and which in 2019 will amount to 29 per cent: 2.91 trillion roubles for defense and 2.25 trillion roubles on the law enforcement and the intelligence services. The militarist agenda of the authorities deprives the health care and education – the most important areas of human capital development and the country’s economy – of the required funds, only 8.2 per cent (1.48 trillion roubles) of federal budget funds are allocated [on these needs].

The state continues to neglect the important role of culture in the development of the country, allocating insignificant funds – less than 1 per cent of the budget (127 billion roubles) – to this area. At a time when transition to a digital economy is becoming one of the key tasks in the developed countries, the [Russian] government allocates [only] 680 billion roubles to the state programme of the development of science and technology, which not only does not meet the goals, but in fact leads Russia to an increasing backlog and technological dependence from western countries.

The adopted budget does not meet the social objectives, the main of which is the fight against poverty. The increase in VAT and retirement age exacerbates the plight of citizens, leading to a further decline in real incomes of the population, which fell by 11 per cent from 2014 to 2017. 22 million citizens live below the poverty line, but the state prefers to spend money on armaments (4.5 trillion roubles in 2019 – 2021) and material incentives for officials, the costs of which will increase threefold over three years amounting to 631.5 billion roubles.

The budget in its present form does not contain sources of development. Instead of investing into the social sphere and human capital, innovation and encouragement of private entrepreneurship, it contains non-transparent mega-projects, gigantic construction projects requiring huge financing. Experience shows that the feasibility of such projects is extremely questionable, budgets are being infinitely inflated, but they do not give yield any economic effect.

Budget transparency remains low – 3.1 trillion roubles (17 per cent) are classified as secret, which means that society does not have an ability to effectively control the spending, which creates fertile ground for abuse, corruption and quasi-state projects.

There are no growth prospects for the Russian economy at the present model of development and confrontation with Europe and the USA. The Russian economy has become hostage to the policies of the authorities; therefore, the situation can be improved only by changing the country’s political course. It is necessary to stop Russia’s participation in military operations in Syria and in the Donbas, a senseless and economically unprofitable confrontation with the West, a source of credits and technologies for Russian business.

Reduction of bloated and non-transparent spending on security forces and weapons, relying on private initiative, talent and enterprise society is the problem of [Russia’s] survival. It is necessary to abandon, once and for all, shifting of all financial obligations of the state onto people, give them an opportunity to feel protected, free, provide them a chance to realise themselves. We insist on changing the priorities of budget spending: at least 8 per cent of the budget should be spent on healthcare, at least 6 per cent on education, at least 6 per cent on science, at least 2 per cent on culture, and at least 2 per cent on environmental protection.

Emilia Slabunova,

Yabloko Chair