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 World Youth and Student Games (Universiad-2013) in 2013 in Kazan and the Winter Olympics in 2014 in Sochi.
Mr. Putin emphasized that this is a very important national task and said that the total cost of these programs in the period 2011-2020 is up to 20,700 billion rubles (nearly 650 billion USD), of which 79% is spent on purchasing new modern weapons.
He added that the military branches and services prioritized for new weapons include strategic nuclear forces, space vehicles, intelligence, communications, navy and air defense and air force./.
According to (Vietnam+) - DT
