Putin:Russia to spend 30 billion dollars on national defense in 2012

The Russian government will allocate over 880 billion rubles (about 30 billion U.S. dollars) for defense spending in 2012, said on Monday. Speaking at a government meeting, Putin said that in 2011 the government spent 750 billion rubles on national defense. He stressed the importance of timely execution of the contracts between the Defense Ministry, military-industrial complex and other state institutions. "Breaking up the agreed timing of (arms) supply is unacceptable, " Putin warned, adding that not all the defense contracts have been conducted in a timely manner. "In the next five to ten years we have to fully re-equip our Army and Navy. By 2020, the share of the modern weaponry must go up to 70 percent," Putin said. Russia plans to allocate 20 trillion rubles (about 666 billion U.S. dollars) for the re-armament by 2020.