2 May 2018: Russia’s military spending fell sharply in 2017 for the first time since 1998 as a slew of Western economic sanctions hit government coffers hard, a closely followed review said Wednesday.
Despite soaring tensions between Moscow and the West, Russia’s military expense last year came in at $66.3 billion (54.9 billion euros), 20 percent lower than in 2016, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.
The last time Moscow was forced to cut spending was in 1998 at the height of a massive economic crisis.
