The total military budget of the 12 member CIS countries put together has gone up by 20%. Whereas last year the sum was 22.5 billion dollars, this year it will go up to 29 billion. Azerbaijan’s military budget exceeds the budgets of the other CIS countries. The budget will double and reach 600 million dollars. Georgia has also multiplied its expenses- going from 80 million dollars to 240. But according to analysts, the Georgian government has taken that risk taking into consideration the social needs and investments and not the economic rise. Based on official data, Armenia spends 3% of the GDP, in other words nearly 150 million dollars on defense. In fact, according to the recent announcement made by Armenian deputy minister of defense Arthur Aghabekyan, “this amount can be reviewed”. It seems as though Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Belarus are the “best peacekeeping” regional countries- providing only 1% of the GDP for defense. However, the “top peacekeeper” is Turkmenistan-spending 0.5% of its total budget on defense.
