Russia revealed to have spent almost €850m on ‘patriotic’ shows and events since the start of Ukraine war

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Russia has spent 91 billion rubles (€843 million) on “patriotic” shows and events, according to a report published by Novaya Gazeta on Monday.

The budget allotted this year to the Patriotic Education for the Citizens of the Russian Federation programme is set to reach 46 billion rubles (€426 million), an increase of 6 billion rubles (€56 million) on the total spent in 2023, and 10 times more than the amount budgeted in 2022.

According to the report, the regions that spend some of the highest amounts on patriotic education in Russia include St. Petersburg, Moscow, Voronezh, Chelyabinsk, Stavropol, and the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district.

The most expensive event to have been paid for this year by Rospatriottsentr, a part of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and the state body responsible for allocating funds for patriotic education, was the Origins National Youth Historical and Cultural Forum in the city of Sevastopol in annexed Crimea, which cost over 180 million rubles (€1.6 million).

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has introduced new “patriotic activities” in schools and kindergartens, including Important Conversations, a mandatory propaganda class introduced in Russian schools in 2022, as well as thousands of war-themed events for kindergartners as young as three.