- Category
- Latest news
Putin Doubles Down on Propaganda With Record Spending in 2026 Budget
- Authors
![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
The Russian government has allocated record funding for state media and propaganda in its draft 2026 budget, according to The Moscow Times on September 30.
The new proposal increases annual spending on state television, news agencies, and online propaganda projects to 146.3 billion rubles ($1.77 billion). This marks a 7% rise compared to the current year and a 28% increase compared to pre-war 2021 levels.
The explanatory note to the draft budget shows that monthly spending on state propaganda will reach 12.1 billion rubles ($146 million), or approximately 2.81 billion rubles per week ($34 million). The primary recipients remain Russia’s major state-controlled broadcasters and news agencies:
RT (Russia Today), operated by ANO “TV-Novosti,” will receive 32.08 billion rubles ($388 million);
VGTRK, which oversees “Rossiya-1” and “Rossiya-24,” will see its allocation increase from 22.63 to 24.69 billion rubles ($299 million);
Channel One will retain a direct subsidy of 6 billion rubles ($73 million) for content production, alongside a share of 20.68 billion rubles ($250 million) set aside for program distribution across several channels, including NTV and TV Center;
Rossiya Segodnya, managing the RIA Novosti news agency, is allocated 11.18 billion rubles ($135 million);
TASS will receive 5.01 billion rubles ($61 million), up from 4.83 billion;
Public Television of Russia will be funded with 1.86 billion rubles ($22.5 million) in subsidies, plus an additional 2.42 billion rubles ($29 million) from other budget lines;
Smaller outlets such as Regnum (157 million rubles, $1.9 million) and Komsomolskaya Pravda (438.8 million rubles, $5.3 million) are also included;
An additional 731.8 million rubles ($8.9 million) is specifically earmarked for promoting pro-Kremlin content on the internet.
According to The Moscow Times, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, nearly 500 billion rubles ($6.05 billion) have been spent on state propaganda. However, audience engagement with state-controlled media has been declining despite increased funding.
-d0aa4f8894e8cc39e0f46c3d0316e790.png)
Television audiences have dropped notably: Channel One lost a quarter of its viewers since early 2022, NTV lost 13%, and the flagship political show of Vladimir Solovyov fell out of the top 50 programs.
RIA Novosti’s online audience decreased by 12%, while TASS lost 3%. The Moscow Times reported that Komsomolskaya Pravda, once described by Vladimir Putin as his favorite newspaper, saw the steepest decline, with daily users falling from 6.5 million to 4.3 million.
Earlier, Ukraine’s Institute of Mass Information reported on September 16 that Russia had organized a propaganda trip to temporarily occupied Donetsk, bringing pro-Russian activists, journalists, and politicians from eight countries, including Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Slovakia, the United States, Turkey, France, and the Czech Republic.
