It’s a new record. Global military spending rose again in 2021 as Russia continued to build up its military ahead of its invasion of Ukraine, a leading institute said on Monday, predicting the trend would continue, particularly in Europe.
On the rise despite Covid-19
Despite the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, global military spending increased by 0.7% last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report. “In 2021, military spending increased for the seventh straight year, reaching $2.1 trillion. That’s the highest number we’ve ever recorded,” said Sipri researcher Diego Lopes da Silva.
Russia’s spending rose 2.9% to $65.9 billion for the third straight year. Russian military spending accounted for 4.1 percent of the country’s GDP, a level “much higher than the global average,” Lopes da Silva said.
Russia at the top
The revenues from oil and gas exports allowed the country to finance these large military expenditures. However, Lopes da Silva said it is difficult to assess whether Russia will be able to maintain this level of spending due to the wave of sanctions launched by the West in response to the aggression in Ukraine.
In 2014, during the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, the country was also the target of sanctions as energy prices plummeted, making it difficult to assess the sanctions’ effectiveness. “Now (…) we have even tougher sanctions, but we have higher energy prices, which can help Russia to keep its military spending at this level,” he added.