Russia plans to spend 19 trillion rubles ($613 billion) to purchase new weapons over the next decade as it seeks to modernize its Soviet-era Army, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in an interview released on Sept. 21.
The government is in the process of approving a plan to ramp up the arms budget for 2011-2020 by 46 percent from the previous estimate of 13 trillion rubles, Serdyukov told Bloomberg news agency in an interview.
Serdyukov, who spoke following talks with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Washington earlier this month, also said Russia was interested in U.S. technologies. He did not elaborate.
Much of Russia's military equipment dates back to Soviet times, and the government has in recent years promised extra money for modernization.
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