Publicly disclosed spending totaled $13.81 billion, up 71% from the previous quarter, while classified spending surged 131% to $29.47 billion.This marks an 80% increase compared to the second quarter and a 53% year-on-year rise.This single-quarter defense expenditure is nearly triple Russia’s annual higher education budget of $15.46 billion and about 15 times the yearly budgets of regions such as Irkutsk ($2.7 billion) or Novosibirsk ($3.33 billion).Spending on military salaries, including substantial bonuses for contract workers, rose by 26% year-over-year to $6.14 billion.Additionally, expenditures on “military cooperation with foreign countries,” potentially including Iranian drones and North Korean munitions, reached a record $1.73 billion in Q3.Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a federal budget on Dec. 1 with record defense spending over the next three years.