Russia will reduce defense spending for 2012 by 25 billion rubles ($833 million), Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Sukhorukov said on Thursday.
The state defense order for 2012 stood at 704.3 billion rubles as of last December, he said.
"Now I have a different figure. In accordance with the decision of the government and president, the state defense spend for 2012 has fallen by 25 billion rubles and stands at 677.4 billion rubles," he said.
The cut did not mean that the money had been taken away from the Defense Ministry, he claimed. "It has been redistributed for different tasks," he said, adding it would have no effect on the procurement program as a whole.
