Russian Defense Spending 11 Times Less Than US', One-Third of China's

Russia spends 11 times less than the United States on defense and one-third of China's defense spending, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — He estimated the upkeep of one US soldier at $510,000 on average, $170,000 in China and $54,000 in Russia.

"Our defense spending is 11 times less than in the United States, and one-third in comparison with China," Shoigu said at a government hour session in the upper house of parliament.

Earlier, a media report suggested that thre global defense spending has increased by 1 percent in 2016, even taking into consideration the first decline in military expenditures of Russia in more than 15 years. However, in 2015, the Russian national defense spending had a record growth of the post-soviet time, surpassing 28 percent.

In 2016, the US reportedly spent 611.2 billion on defense. Back in February 2017, US President Donald Trump proposed to boost defense and security spending by $54 billion and "cut roughly the same amount from non-defense programs."

Official figures released by the Chinese government peg the country's 2016 defense budget at 954 billion yuan ($146.6 billion), an increase of 7.6 percent. Beijing is also expected to increase military spending by 7 percent in 2017.