Putin Says How Much Russia Spends on Military Needs

Russia is spending 13.5 trillion rubles on military expenses out of a GDP of 223 trillion rubles, President Vladimir Putin said during a press conference in Minsk.

Photo: минобороны.рф by Игорь Руденко, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Landing operations as part of a joint exercise of Russian and Belarusian Airborne Forces

This is “not a small amount”: “I believe it’s a lot,” he noted.

“6.3% of Russia’s GDP goes toward defense needs — that’s 13.5 trillion rubles. And our total GDP is 223.3 trillion rubles. So is 13.5 out of 223 a lot or a little? It’s not a little, not a little. We’ve paid for it with inflation,” Putin stated.

At the same time, the president emphasized that unlike the West, Russia plans to reduce, rather than increase, its defense spending.

“But now here’s the most important point. We are planning to reduce defense expenditures <...> while Europe, on the contrary, is thinking about how to raise theirs,” Putin said.

In the past, the US, for example, had spent more on military conflicts: 14% of GDP on the war in Korea, 10% in Vietnam, Putin also said.