| This show is in English. The show went live at Russia Today satellite TV channel 05/03/2011 Russian military expert Igor Khokhlov, a researcher with Moscow-based Institute of World Economy and International Relations, comments on a six-fold increase in Russia's military spending in the last three years. While the country's position in the military expenses rating has jumped up, its defense expenditure is dwarfed by those of China and the US. This is according to the World Arms Trade Center watchdog that has analyzed the statistics of the world arms trade in the period 2002-2009. "We tried to assess every country's attitude to military development," Igor Korotchenko, head of the center, said. Research showed that Russia's military expenses in 2009 amounted to $38 billion. In eight years, the country had managed to climb from 11th position to 7th. "If we talk about the amount of spending, there has been a six-fold increase in the last three years," military analyst Igor Khokhlov told RT. "We have to understand that Russia is a very specific country with very hostile environmental conditions, and it's pretty hard to compare how much you spend and what you get, because most of the money still goes into maintaining this very expensive military infrastructure." The 2009 rating is topped by the US with its whopping $574 billion expenses, followed by China ($70.5 billion), the UK ($59 billion), France ($54 billion), Japan ($49 billion), Germany ($47 billion), Saudi Arabia ($32 ... |
