RUSSIAN DM CONCERNED BY GEORGIA’S RECORD HIGH INCREASE OF ARMS SPENDING

Armenpress
Jun 14 2006

ST. PETERSBURG, JUNE 14, ARMENPRESS: Russia’s defense minister said
Tuesday he was concerned over large purchases of weapons by Georgia
in Eastern Europe.

"It is alarming that in the last year or two Georgia has been buying
great amounts of Soviet armaments from East European countries,"
Sergey Ivanov told journalists. "I don’t know Georgia’s military
budget, but this very fact causes unquestionable concern," he said.

But Ivanov said the increase in Georgia’s military spending did not
mean that Tbilisi had decided to resolve the problem with its breakaway
South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions by military means. The Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its latest
yearbook that the biggest increase worldwide was in the ex-Soviet state
of Georgia, which surged by more than 140 percent to $146 million.

Armenia increased arms spending nearly 23 percent, while Georgia
increased its military budget 143 percent and Azerbaijan 51
percent. The institute said that the official explanation for Georgia’s
large rise in spending was a wish to join NATO, while others argued
that Tbilisi wanted to regain control over the renegade regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Several states, including Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Algeria and Russia,
have used a sharp rise in oil prices to boost military spending,
it said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress