MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s defense budget will be cut by 5 percent in 2016, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Tatiana Shevtsova said, according to the RIA news agency.
Defense spending has been growing as part of a drive by President Vladimir Putin to restore Russia’s military might. The decision to cut shows, however, that even the armed forces are not immune to a slowing Russian economy, which has been hit by falling oil prices and Western sanctions.
The 5 percent cut, if approved by Putin, would be the biggest reduction in defense spending since he took office in 2000.
In 2011, while prime minister, …read more
Source: Newsweek
