Russian Defense Spending Going Down After Record Growth in 2015

Russian national defense spending had a record growth of the post-soviet time last year, surpassing 28 percent, the Russian Vedomosti newspaper reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – In 2014, the country’s defense spending grew by 17.9 percent over the previous year, while in 2015, it increased by 28.3 percent, the newspaper said citing a Russian Defense Ministry source.

According to Vedomosti, Russia’s defense spending started going down in 2016 and the tendency will continue.

In 2015, Russia’s defense spending decreased by a total of about 100 billion rubles (over $1.5 billion), according to the defense ministry source cited by Vedomosti.