Russian Military to Spend Largest Sum on Arms Since Collapse of Soviet Union

MosNews | May 5 2005

This year Russia will buy more arms than it sells for the first time in a decade in a bid to modernize its armed forces. The Defense Ministry will spend $6.8 billion on arms in 2005, compared with the $5.1 billion it earned from arms exports last year, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said in interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

Russia is rearming its troops “to fight terrorism,” Ivanov said.

The government blames Chechnya, a landlocked region between the Caspian and Black seas that borders Georgia, Bloomberg news agency points out, for most of the terrorist attacks it has suffered since 1999, when Russia sent its army into the rebellious republic for the second time in four years. Rebel leaders such as Shamil Basayev have taken responsibility for some of the attacks, including the Beslan hostage-taking in September that left at least 339 dead.