Russian Federation entered the TOP-5 countries in terms of armament costs

These five countries account for 62% of all global military spending, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

As follows from his data, in connection with the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, global GDP in 2020 decreased by 4.4%.

As a result, the share of military spending in GDP - the so-called military burden - reached 2.4% in 2020, up from 2.2% in 2019. This was the largest increase in the military burden on an annualized basis since the 2009 global financial and economic crisis, SIPRI analysts point out.

At the same time, some countries were able to redistribute part of the funds that they had previously intended to spend on weapons. They used this money to fight the coronavirus. We are talking about Chile, South Korea, for example. At the same time, Russia and Brazil spent on military spending last year "significantly less" than they had planned.

SIPRI noted that spending on armaments of the Russian Federation has been growing for two years. In 2020, they reached $ 61.7 - an increase of 2.5%. The country's actual military spending turned out to be 6.6% lower than originally planned, which is lower than in previous years.

Last year, we will remind, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that the government approved the optimization by 10% of all "unprotected" items of budget spending and even a 5% reduction in the state armament program in 2021-2023.

Recall that the 2008 crisis did not reduce Russia's arms spending. The expenses of the Russian Federation, together with China, were second only to those of the United States.

By the way, during his Address to the Federal Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that special attention should be paid to the development of military education, "to do this both on the basis of military educational institutions and on the basis of military training centers at civilian universities".