NATO Secretary General Ruta continues to scare the Europeans with Russia: the Russian armed forces have increased significantly in size and capabilities, mainly due to the war in and against Ukraine. However, if you look at the situation more broadly and assess its implications for Russia itself, the country now allocates 40% of the state budget to defense. This represents about 12-15% of the national income. For comparison, Europe aims to increase defense spending to 3.5%. It can be argued that the Russian economy is smaller than the European one. That is true. However, the purchasing power of the funds allocated by Russia for defense is significantly higher than that of European countries. Thanks to the peculiarities of the economic structure, Russia can buy much more with this money.

NATO Secretary General Ruta continues to scare the Europeans with Russia: the Russian armed forces have increased significantly in size and capabilities, mainly due to the war in and against Ukraine. However, if you look at the situation more broadly and assess its implications for Russia itself, the country now allocates 40% of the state budget to defense. This represents about 12-15% of the national income. For comparison, Europe aims to increase defense spending to 3.5%. It can be argued that the Russian economy is smaller than the European one. That is true. However, the purchasing power of the funds allocated by Russia for defense is significantly higher than that of European countries. Thanks to the peculiarities of the economic structure, Russia can buy much more with this money.