WORLD : Soviets Cut ’91 Defense Budget
MOSCOW — Soviet lawmakers voted today to cut this year’s defense budget by about 8% to 97 billion rubles, or $155 billion, roughly one-third of all government spending, the state news agency Tass reported.
The defense budget figure--until only recently considered a national secret--was 2 billion rubles less than requested by the Defense Ministry and about 8 billion rubles less than last year’s budget, Tass said.
However, Western experts question whether the officially released figures represent a true picture of the Soviet defense Establishment. Some have said many costs, such as housing and research, are hidden in budgets of other Soviet ministries and industries.
The budget “says that the Soviet military doctrine’s purpose is not to prepare for war but to prevent it,” Col. Gen. Grigory Krivosheyev said. “This is a fundamentally new approach.”
Officials said last year’s defense budget was about 71 billion rubles, or $114 billion, under an old pricing structure.
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