Russia hikes defence spending to $47 billion
Moscow, Sep 13 (RIA Novosti) Russia has hiked its defence spending for 2009 to 1.2 trillion roubles ($46.8 billion), a top ranking government official has said. The spending is outlined in the budget for 2009-2011 which is due to be tabled in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Sep 19.
“The state defence order overall for next year is planned to hit a record sum of 1.2 trillion roubles,” first deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov said.
The three-year budget envisaged an additional spending of 170 billion roubles ($6.63 billion) in comparison to previous annual programmes.
Ivanov said the increase was caused by “the need to implement decrees made by the president and prime minister, and obviously inflation.”
He said earlier that the Russian budget allocation for 2007 stood at 700 billion roubles ($30 billion) for state defence orders, with the figure expected to total 1 trillion roubles ($43 billion) in 2008.
Military analysts said Russia, which sold arms worth $7 billion last year making it the second largest exporter of conventional weapons after the United States, had decided to increase military spending following the five-day conflict with Georgia last month.
In July, a month before Georgia attacked the breakaway republic of South Ossetia, which Moscow recognised as a sovereign state on Aug 26, Russia increased its annual military budget by an additional $210 million, taking the total spending for 2008 to $997 million.
The US, which has strongly condemned Russia for its military operation in Georgia, has a defence budget of $696 billion for this year.