Russia plans to spend $186 billion on arms by 2015

Russia will spend $186 billion on buying arms between next year and 2015, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying on Friday. "Over nine years almost 5 trillion roubles ($186 billion) will be apportioned," Interfax news agency quoted him as telling a meeting of the government military-industrial commission, which he heads. "What matters is what the money is spent on, that it is spent effectively," Ivanov, also a deputy prime minister, added. He gave no further details. Domestic orders would be a boost to an arms industry that is fighting to recover from a post-Soviet decline.