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Russia plans another substantial increase in defense spending next year to pay for across-the-board military upgrades, development of new weapons systems and improved social benefits for defense-sector employees, news agencies said Wednesday. A draft 2006 budget allocates 668.3 billion rubles (24 billion dollars, 19.5 billion euros) for spending on national defense, an increase of nearly 22 percent on this year's defense budget and a figure equivalent to about 2.75 percent of Russia's projected gross national product. The draft 2006 budget heralds a third consecutive year of significant increase in Russian defense spending in real terms, and came as President Vladimir Putin reiterated that upgrading the country's armed forces remained a priority of his presidency. "I remember a time when ships stood idle in port, when planes did not fly. At the beginning of the 1990s, servicemen had their caps snatched off their heads when they rode on public transport," RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying aboard a naval cruise in the Barents Sea on Wednesday. "A lot has changed since then. ... Problems remain, but critical changes regarding the combat readiness of the armed forces have been made." In the past two days, Putin has underscored the priority his administration attaches to rebuilding Russian defenses, breaking the sound barrier as he took the pilot's seat of a supersonic strategic bomber on Tuesday and attending strategic naval exercises on Wednesday. The headline figure cited by Russian news agencies is dwarfed by basic US defense expenditure, which has been well in excess of 400 billion dollars for years and projected to rise by at least five percent in 2006 based on pending Pentagon budget requests. The United States alone spends about as much on defense annually as all other countries of the world combined, according to independent international defense specialists. All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceWar Search SpaceWar Subscribe To SpaceWar Express 
Putin Plays Salesman As Russia Puts Aerospace Wares On Display
Zhukovsky, Russia (AFP) Aug 16, 2005Russia put its latest aerospace wares on display Tuesday as President Vladimir Putin kicked off a major trade fair outside Moscow, telling prospective buyers that the best value for money in aviation and space technology was here. |
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