MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The national defense spending planned in the state budget for 2004 will be enough only for minimal requirements of the Armed Forces, a competent source in the Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency Thursday.
"Experts say that the budget 2004 will keep on the line of covering only the vital requirements of the national defense. The Russian army will be again underfunded for fuel, and the personnel undersupplied with uniforms and food," the source said.
He said that the national defense spending in 2004 is planned at RUB412bn (USD13.6bn), or 2.69 percent of the GDP, plus almost RUB70bn (USD2.3bn) (19 percent) year-on-year. This year's defense spending is about RUB345bn (USD11.4bn).
With due account for inflation, which, according to various estimates, has already amounted to 12 to 14 percent this year, the rise in budget allocations will only cover the inflation loss, he went on.
For example, according to the source, the compensation for uniform not used in 2003 and 2004 will not exceed RUB3,000 (USD99). This means that many servicemen will have neither the uniform nor the money, the source said. He added that the food compensation would also hardly be raised. He called the current sum of RUB600 per month (USD19, exactly RUB20, or USD0.65, per day - Interfax-AVN) "ridiculous but not changing for five years now."
"This is not the entire list of examples indicating actual decline in defense spending," the source emphasized.