Military

  • Military
    Feb 21, 2024
    NATO European Allies Hit 2% GDP Defense Spending Target for the First Time in 2024

    On February 21, 2024, NATO announced a significant milestone: for the first time, European allies had collectively met the defense spending target of 2% of GDP. This achievement comes after former President Trump’s urging for NATO members to increase their defense budgets. According to NATO’s latest figures, released on January 15, 2024, the collective defense expenditure of European NATO Allies will reach $380 billion in 2024, marking an “unprecedented rise” in spending. This increase builds on the 11% growth in defense spending across Europe and Canada throughout 2023, a year when 18 countries exceeded the 2% GDP target for defense projects. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted the progress, emphasizing the real strides made in European defense spending. However, he noted that some allies still need to meet the agreed-upon target, as the 2% figure is considered a minimum.

  • Military
    Mar 01, 2023
    New START suspended

    Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced on February 21, 2023 that Russia is suspending its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III) with the United States, but is not withdrawing from it. Putin stated that Russia must understand how to take into account the combined nuclear capabilities of other NATO countries with offensive nuclear weapons and reproached the United States for developing new types of nuclear weapons and possible plans to test nuclear weapons.

     

  • Military
    Aug 18, 2018
    Russia spends less on defense than the U.S., fully ensuring its safety

    Senator Franz Klintsevich stressed that United States spends on defense more than 15 times over what Russia’s defense budget is.

     

    With military spending some 15 times smaller than that of the United States, Russia manages to ensure its safety while abstaining from getting drawn into an arms race, said the First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee on Defense and Security Franz Klintsevich on December 14, 2017. The Russian Senator’s comments were made in response to military expenditure statistics that President Vladimir Putin shared during his annual news conference.

     

  • Military
    Aug 18, 2018
    Russia determined to respond to military threats

    Russian scientists are developing armaments capable of responding to external threats posed by the United States, said the former head of the Committee on Defense of Russia’s Federation Council Viktor Ozerov on October 13, 2017.

     

    Alexander Yemelyanov, an official of the Russian Defense Ministry, said that the U.S. efforts to build up a missile defense system with the number of missiles exceeding 1,000 by the year 2022 poses a threat for Russia’s nuclear deterrent and for global security. He has also sounded an alarm at the United States’ developing prompt global strike systems, which could also upset the balance of power. Commenting on the U.S. weapons systems development, Senator Ozerov emphasized that the American side “hasn’t walked away from the third and the fourth position areas in Europe, and has committed to a strategic missile defense complex to be deployed in the U.S.”

     

  • Military
    Aug 18, 2018
    Soviet officer who averted nuclear war dies at age 77

    Stanislav Petrov, a Russian military officer who averted a nuclear catastrophe and a likely World War III between the Soviet Union and the United States nearly 35 years ago died at the age of 77 on May 19, 2017. For all the fame he received in his later years, Lieutenant Colonel Petrov was a man of great humility and did not view his actions as particularly heroic. Nonetheless, his actions did save the world on one fateful night in 1983.

     

  • Military
    Aug 18, 2018
    Canceling Iranian deal won’t impact arms sales

    On October 5, 2017, Washington Post reported that President Trump intended to cancel the nuclear agreement with Iran.  Russia’s high-ranking senator Viktor Ozerov posited that the U.S. decision to suspend the nuclear agreement with Iran is not going to affect Russia’s arms deliveries to the Middle Eastern nation.

     

    The likely refusal of the U.S. President Donald Trump to adhere to the nuclear agreement with Iran won’t influence the implementation of Russia’s contracts to deliver armaments to Tehran following the year 2020. The non-fulfillment of the United States’ agreement with Iran will not impact the sales of warplanes, helicopters, warships, and missile systems, the former chairman of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee Viktor Ozerov said on October 5, 2017.

     

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