President Vladimir Putin's insistence on huge defense spending makes it hard to see how a government plan to make deep budget cuts will see Russia through a deepening economic crisis.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has called for a 10 percent cut in planned expenditures, warning that if oil averages $50 a barrel this year, the budget will face a shortfall of 3 trillion rubles ($46 billion).
But defense spending will not be affected because of a Putin directive that dramatically limits room for maneuver. Military and security costs swallow up more than a third of the budget and are set to rise by about 30 percent this year.