MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On March 5, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Tatiana Shevtsova said that the ministry’s budget expenditure was expected to be reduced by five percent.
"I think government defense orders will be reduced by about 10%," Chemezov said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Thursday, answering a question about possible cuts to Russia's defense budget.
He added that a reduction would definitely happen due to the decrease in state's revenues caused by the decline in global oil and gas prices.
Russia is currently implementing a large-scale rearmament program, announced in 2010, to modernize 70 percent of its military hardware by 2020. The total modernization program cost is estimated to reach about 20 trillion rubles (some $284 billion at current exchange rates).
