Question

It’s not true that Russia has a higher #militaryspending than Europe.

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Perché non è vero che la Russia abbia una #spesamilitare maggiore dell’Europa

Piccole note sul motivo per cui cose del genere vengano scritte proprio ora che siamo nel mezzo della furia retorica e politica del #riarmo...

Comments

This comment is headed in the right direction, In the article Russian Defense Spending Overtakes Europe it states, "The think tank said that Russia’s military expenditure last year was forecast at 13.1 trillion rubles ($145.9 billion), or 6.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product — over 40 percent higher than the previous year." This shows a gigantic increase in military spending and adds onto the fact that Russia is gaining a large impact on military spending. Also stating, "Meanwhile, Europe’s combined 2024 defense spending was $457 billion, more than 50 percent higher in nominal terms than it was in 2014, and 11.7 percent higher in real terms than the previous year." You can see through this information that Russia is not spending as much as Europe on military expenses. However, Russia has been increasing the budgeting on military expenses by 40% and Europe is not increasing it at such a high scale. SO yes, Russia this past year did have a higher military spending than Europe but did not spend more money than Europe.
https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-defense-spending-overtakes-europe-study-finds/

Answer 1

This claim is partially true. According to CEPA Russias 2024 military budget was $129 Billion dollars, 6.39 percent of the country's GDP.  This data comes from Russias Minister of Defense Andrei Belousov. The European Defense agency reportes that Europes total 2024 defense spending was $362 billion, 1.29% of its GDP. This means that while Europe has spent a higher dollar amount on their military, Russia is spending a signficiantly higher proportion of their total GDP on military spending, showing that it prioritizes defense above other causes, compared to Europe. 

https://www.conference-board.org/publications/a-credible-military-deterrent-is-economically-feasible#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20European%20Defense,30%25%20increase%20in%20three%20years.

https://cepa.org/article/russias-year-of-truth-the-runaway-military-budget/

Answer 2

This comment is headed in the right direction, In the article Russian Defense Spending Overtakes Europe it states, "The think tank said that Russia’s military expenditure last year was forecast at 13.1 trillion rubles ($145.9 billion), or 6.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product — over 40 percent higher than the previous year." This shows a gigantic increase in military spending and adds onto the fact that Russia is gaining a large impact on military spending. Also stating, "Meanwhile, Europe’s combined 2024 defense spending was $457 billion, more than 50 percent higher in nominal terms than it was in 2014, and 11.7 percent higher in real terms than the previous year." You can see through this information that Russia is not spending as much as Europe on military expenses. However, Russia has been increasing the budgeting on military expenses by 40% and Europe is not increasing it at such a high scale. SO yes, Russia this past year did have a higher military spending than Europe but did not spend more money than Europe.
https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-defense-spending-overtakes-europe-study-finds/

Answer 3

Yes, Russia military's spending exceeds Europes. In 2023 Russia spent around 109 billion on defense, which is higher and combined military budgets of European nations. For example Germany defense of budget is around 86 billion, and European NATO members collectively spend less than Russia. This gap highlights that the fact that Russia has more military expenditure surpassing Europes total. https://www.thetimes.com/ 

Answer 4

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the second-best defence and national security think tank globally, Russia's military spending is actually larger. Europe's total military spending in 2024 was ~457 billion, whereas Russia's was ~462 billion. Additionally, an interesting characteristic worth noting about the source in the original claim is that it is written in Italian, and Italy is a European country. This could potentially cause bias of some kind, but that is up for interpretation.