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New heights for Russian defence spending

Photo: mil.ru

Russia intends to spend 22 trillion RUB on its next ten-year defence programme. -We never had this kind of sums before – we only dreamt about it, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says.

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In addition to 19 trillion RUB of defence spending, Russia plans to use up to three trillion RUB on defence and security structures beyond the Ministry of Defence, newspaper Vedomosti reports.

The three trillion RUB are expected to be spent first of all on development of the country’s Interior Ministry forces and the FSB.

Of the 19 trillion RUB planned spent on the Ministry of Defence, a significant part is expected to be spent on new vessels for the Black Sea Fleet, soldiers’ equipment, new jet fighters and on acquisitions of the French-designed amphibious assault ship, Vedomosti writes.

Until now, it was expected that the ten-year programme would include only 13 trillion RUB of defence spending.

Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov says the goal is to bring the level of new equipment in the Armed Forces to 70-80 percent, up from today’s ten percent.

At the same time, several analysts believe the Russian military industrial complex might not be able to handle the big number of new orders. Also President Dmitry Medvedev expressed such a worry in a meeting with the defence minister this week. “The Russian military industrial complex is within a number of fields not ready to react on an increase in the number of orders and financing with an adequate growth in the production of hi-tech production”, he said.