AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
Moscow: Russian arms orders will rise next year by more than 20 percent to 8.8 billion euros (11.2 billion dollars) mainly for new nuclear weapons and outfitting rapid reaction forces, a senior official said Saturday.
“Expenditure of 302.7 billion roubles (8.8 billion euros) is earmarked for the defence ministry for purchase and refurbishing of military material and arms,” Vladislav Putilin, the vice president of the state industrial-military commission was quoted as saying by the ITAR-TASS news agency. “These orders will increase by more than 20 percent in almost all areas at comparable prices,” another agency, Interfax, quoted him as saying.
The additional resources would be applied largely to development of nuclear weapons, rapid reaction units and special forces.
Interior ministry orders were set to increased from 13.7 billion to 14.6 billion roubles (424 million euros), Putilin said.
