Russian Defense Minister: We will spend more than $ 21.6 billion in 2019 to re-equip our troops

Russia has decided to spend more than $ 21.6 billion in 2019 to rearm the armed forces, Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said.

This came during a press conference held by Shoygu at his ministry, on Tuesday, to talk about spending by the Russian army in 2019.

Shoygu said: “It has been allocated 1.44 trillion rubles (about $ 21.6 billion) for the implementation of state orders under the armed forces processing, and pointed out that it will be allocated a budget of a trillion and 440 billion rubles to arm Russian troops, which will be 71 one percent of these funds for modern weapons, and by the end of the year the share of weapons and modern equipment in the army will be 67 percent”.

He said the share of modern weapons and military equipment in the Russian military should be raised to 70 percent by 2020.

In total, according to reports, the share of modern weapons and equipment in the Russian armed forces in 2020 will be about 70 percent.

At the same time, the Russian defense minister stressed that “strict control over the effective spending of budget funds” by “leaders of all levels” is necessary.

The Russian defense minister was announced on 24 December 2018, the Russian army reached in 2018 an unprecedented level in terms of equipping with modern equipment and weapons, where he received more than 1.5 thousand models of arms and 80 thousand pieces Of equipment in 2018.