Russian soldiers celebrate the 61st anniversary of victory in World War Two, September 5, 2006
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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Strengthening National Security
The militarization of the Russian state since 2000 is obvious. Analysts at ING Russia published a comparative study of the largest economies of the CIS this week that predicts how they will react to a fall in oil prices. That study found that outlays for national security began to rise significantly in 2006, but there had been no dynamic growth of security spending between 2000 and 2006. Moreover, its allotment of funds from the economy was close to that level of its largest neighbors, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Using data from the statistical services of those three countries, ING Russia analysts compared the share of national security expenditures (financing of the special services, the size of the armed services' state order, etc) in the GDP for each country. At the height of military operations in Chechnya in 2001 and 2002, consolidated expenditures for national security as a share of the GDP did not rise in Russia, but they did in Ukraine – a tendency that continued up to the Orange Revolution. Kazakhstan raised its security spending as a share of the GDP in 2003, but lowered them after it began having problems with the opposition.
A peak in national security spending was reached in Russia in 2006. The public has been assured for the last two before that that the government was spending significantly on fighting terrorist and military threats. Spending did increase but, until 2004, at a slower rate than the growth of the GDP. The militarization of the Russian state has been observed abroad as well. But it can be said that that militarization took place more in the speeches of politicians and generals than in the budget.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 15, 2007
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