President Putin: "Russia will not cut defense spending"
Speaking at the Novo-Ogarevo residence on the outskirts of Moscow on the afternoon of August 14, President Vladimir Putin declared that Russia will not cut defense spending.
According to President Putin, the Russian government will not cut spending to maintain defense capabilities and implement new rearmament programs despite the huge expenses Russia has to spend this time to organize the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Vladivostok next September, the 2013 World Youth and Student Games (Universiad-2013) in Kazan in 2013 and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Mr. Putin emphasized that this is a very important national task and said that the total cost for these programs in the 2011-2020 period amounted to 20,700 billion rubles (nearly 650 billion USD), of which 79% was spent on purchasing new modern weapons.
He added that the military branches and services prioritized for being equipped with new weapons include strategic nuclear forces, space vehicles, intelligence, communications, navy and air defense and air force./.
According to (Vietnam+) - DT
