Russia is to increase annual spending on nuclear weapons by more than 50 percent in the next three years, a parliamentary defense committee said Tuesday.
In 2016, 46.26 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) is to be spent on the country's nuclear weapons systems, up from 29.29 billion rubles this year, according to the State Duma Defense Committee's report on the draft federal budget for 2014 to 2016.
The draft federal budget provides for a 60 percent increase in overall national defense spending by 2016, according to the report, rising from 2.1 trillion rubles this year to 3.38 trillion rubles in 2016.
Defense spending in 2014 and 2015 will be 2.49 trillion rubles and 3.03 trillion rubles, respectively.
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