Russia’s 2007 Defense Budget Focuses on Rearmament: Minister

Agence France-Presse
Nov 21, 2006 - 5:27:42 AM

Russia is due to set aside more than a third of its $30.7-dollar 2007 military budget for rearmament, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Nov. 19.

“In 2007, 300 billion rubles ($11 billion) will be allotted to rearmament, which means massive acquirements of everything from submarines to bullets, and also research and construction,” Ivanov said in an interview broadcast on Russian television.

“A great part of the resources we would set aside for rearmament would go to our navy, with at least 50 percent going to submarine corps,” Ivanov said.

Also, “The military industrial complex is one of our economy’s successful sectors, with high technology and innovations, and jobs for hundreds of thousands of people,” the minister said.

“It is in a certain sense one of the economy’s driving forces, and allows the state to export military equipment,” Ivanov said, adding that it also should contribute to “innovative production” in the civilian area.

“We cannot remain forever addicted to gas and oil production,” he said.
In 2005, Russia sold arms to 61 countries for a record sum of more than $6billion, President Vladimir Putin said in March.