Russian Defense Budget to Be Cut by 5%, Not 10%

Russian Ministry of Defense budget will be reduced not by 10, but by 5 percent, according to Deputy Defense Minister Tatiana Shevtsova.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Russian Defense Ministry’s budget cuts will amount to 5 percent instead of the previously reported 10 percent and will not affect the state armament and social programs, Deputy Defense Minister Tatiana Shevtsova said on Saturday.

"The country’s leadership, the president, decided that the state armaments program is entirely not subject to sequestration. It was also decided that the Ministry of Defense budget will be reduced not by 10, but by 5 percent," Shevtsova told radio station Russian News Service.

She added that the ministry’s social obligations toward Russian servicemen and women were also exempt from the budget cuts.

The 2016 military spending in the country was expected to amount to 3.14 trillion rubles ($43.6 billion at the current exchange rate) or 4 percent of GDP.

A 5-percent cut amounts to some 160 billion rubles.

In 2015, the Russian military budget was reduced by nearly 4 percent.