Russland wird noch lange nach seinem Ende für seinen Krieg gegen die Ukraine bezahlen müssen

*SS from Bloomberg News:*

Russia will be paying for its invasion of Ukraine for years to come even if the fighting ended tomorrow, as the government plugs a widening gap in the military budget with increasingly costly borrowing.

As US President Donald Trump pushes for a deal to end the war, the future bill for Moscow keeps growing. In one of the final bond auctions of the year, the government on Wednesday issued 108.9 billion rubles ($1.36 billion) in debt known as OFZ, taking the total for 2025 so far to 7.9 trillion rubles, sharply surpassing the previous record set in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Back then, the central bank’s key rate was as low as 4.25%, while it reached a record 21% a year ago. Even after the Bank of Russia began cutting borrowing costs in June, to 16.5% now, money has remained extremely expensive for households, businesses and the state.