Here are some 2006 military budget numbers. The ministry of defense is planning to spend 237 billion rubles on the state defense order (gosoboronzakaz). The 2005 number was 187 billion. Or was it? Sergei Ivanov said presenting the plan that the increase relative to this year is 54 billion rubles, indicating that the actual 2005 spending was 183 billion.

A simple estimate that takes into account inflation (which is expected to be at the level of 11.5% this year) gives the real growth of about 16%, which is higher than this year projection of 13%.

The share of the budget that is supposed to go to new equipment purchase is also higher - 70% (164 billion), up from 60% in 2005. The remaining 30% will go to R&D and repairs.

It doesn't make much sense to convert the budget numbers into dollars, but for the sake of comparison, the projected 237 billion rubles would be $8.2 billion. The last year 187 billion rubles gave only $6.7 billion. So, in dollar terms the growth is quite high - about 22%.