MOSCOW – With less than two weeks until elections, Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin pledged to spend 23 trillion rubles ($770 billion) on strengthening the country’s army over the next 10 years, the Kremlin’s biggest military spending spree since the Cold War.
Putin vowed to deliver an “effective and asymmetrical response” to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s plan to cast a missile-defense shield over Europe while thoroughly overhauling the army’s ability to confront modern threats. If approved, the program would tack on more than $120 billion to a $650 billion defense-spending increase pushed through last year, even though a top official warned it may push Russia’s budget past its breaking point.