This is CBS, I Am the World, I'm John Batcha, Russia in conflict in Ukraine, Russia with

the needs of its people, Russia's budget.

Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution is here guiding me on the slow deterioration,

well not so slow anymore, of the Russian ability to pay for things because of the war in

Ukraine and the sanctions.

Bloomberg, within these last hours, war and secret of spending is eating away at Russia's

budget.

Subhead, Russia classifies unprecedented one-third of budget spending.

Subhead, defense security spending now second only to social programs.

The explanation is that in spending, Russia is now chewing up all of its margin, all of

its buffer.

This is something that Michael Bernstam has been guiding us to understand for more than

a year now, we're into the second year of war.

Michael, the budget is hard to penetrate when they don't publish all the facts, but what

appears to be from this Bloomberg reporting is that we can't see all of the spending.

They're taking the money they're taking in.

They're not spending on something in their budget.

Where's it going, Michael?

Do we have any guesses?

Good evening to you.

Good evening.

You have enough information to figure it out.

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