Kudrin opposed the classification of budget expenses RBC

the Ex-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin

Photo: Petr Kovalev/TASS

the Former head of the Ministry of Finance reported that perceived news on the classification of budget expenditures “surprised”. Earlier, the Finance Ministry amendments to the budget proposed to increase the share of classified expenditures in the total expenditures to post-Soviet high.

Former Minister of Finance, the head of the Board of the Center for strategic research (CSR) Alexey Kudrin opposed the classification of budget expenditures. He said this during a business forum “Atlanta”, the correspondent of RBC.

Kudrin said that the messages on the classification saw the “surprise”. “But I think it’s not because the costs will add on some secret operation, it’s just some already existing articles cover”, he said.

In General budget expenditures, including on defense, be reduced due to the fact that revenues have decreased and will decrease the budget deficit, said the former Finance Minister. “So I think just doing the secret part of the articles that were previously open,” he said.

“I am the way, against it. I think that now we do not live in a situation where you need somehow to significantly increase the secret articles of the budget. What’s been revealed, it should be [openly]. And the fact that it is not necessary, has long been closed. So I don’t quite understand this expansion of the secret articles,” — said the head of the CSR.

on Monday, October 3, the Ministry of Finance has published draft amendments to the Federal budget in 2016. As he wrote RBC, the result of the proposed office of changes in the closed part of the budget (secret and top secret appropriations) will increase by almost 680 billion rubles to 3.66 trillion, and their share in total expenditures will amount to 22.3 per cent. This is the most in the history of modern Russia, told RBC head of military economy laboratory of the Gaidar Institute Vasily Zatsepin. In 2015, the share of classified expenditures in the total budget expenditures amounted to 20%, and this year, according to the law on budget, it was down to 18.5%.