MOSCOW — The Russian government on Thursday approved across-the-board budget cuts over the next two years in the clearest sign yet that officials do not expect its economy, the world’s eighth-largest, to revive soon, and that the Kremlin is ready to try a new policy to spur growth.

Making the move more unusual, the cuts come midway through a previously approved spending plan, and they reflect a shift in strategy away from reliance on consumer spending. In Russia, budgets are approved for three years in advance rather than year by year.

The Finance Ministry now projects that revenue will be 3.5 percent lower in 2014 and 7 percent lower in 2015 than it predicted a year ago, when the government of President Vladimir V. Putin approved the three-year spending plan.

Under the revised budget, military salaries will be frozen next year and the government will put less money into a pension fund for future retirees. It will use the money to meet current pension obligations instead.