“Putin noted that Russia plans to decrease its defense spending. “
They have to. Putin has drained their reserve/pension fund to support his two-weeks war.
It is gone. Petroleum and liquor revenues down. Oligarchs are saddened.
Potentially, this data could be very useful. The best case for ending the wars, and stopping Vlad the Invader, is that the war spending cripples Russia. The longer the war goes on, the higher that number (%GDP) will become as old equipment is unavailable.
Put In perspective, Russia is 6 percent, the EU announced they will now have to up it to 5 percent of GDP…..thank you President Trump.
….which means all the EU give away welfare programs will take a huge hit….the immigrants are not going to like that….much written about that…burn baby burn….
Defence spending will account for 32% of total 2025 budget expenditure of 41.5 trillion roubles. The draft budget was officially submitted on Monday to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, for review.
And it’s the best quality a military could ask for …. /s
Not sure we need 5%. Maybe countries that have short-shrifted defense should spend 5% until they made up their arrears. And maybe we should commit to as big a number as will scare the bejesus out of Putin. 5% and no war is way cheaper than a war with a nuclear-capable adversary.
Anyway:
Russia: 6% of $2 T.
US: 3.5% of $30 T.
NATO (not including US): 1.5% of $22 T.
Obviously, Spain (1.2%) and also Canada, Portugal and Italy (1.5%) have to step up to the bar.
Trump is, right now, looking at sanctions on Spain.
Also, we (US) have obligations all around the world (ex., stopping Iran from getting nukes). The Europeans have to accept primary responsibility for Europe.