Russia's Defense Ministry to get over $111 bln in next 3 years

MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's federal budget stipulates the allocation of over 4 trillion rubles ($111 billion) on defense spending in the next three years, a senior Defense Ministry finance official said on Tuesday.

"The Russian Defense Ministry's budget for 2009 and for the planned period of 2010-2011 is primarily aimed at creating a fundamentally new army for the 21st century," Deputy Defense Minister for Financial and Economic Work Lyubov Kudelina said.

Defense spending is projected at a level of 1,376.5 billion rubles ($38.3 billion) in 2009, 1,379.5 billion rubles ($38.4 billion) in 2010 and 1,476.7 billion rubles ($41 billion) in 2011, Kudelina said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda military newspaper.

As in previous years, defense spending will not exceed 3% of the country's gross domestic product and will stand at 2.7% in 2009 compared with 2.6% in 2008, the official said.