Russia ahead of competitors in military sphere despite spending cuts: Putin

Russia is outpacing other major military powers in weapon development in spite of a gradual decrease in military spending, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"We must be proud of the fact that in spite of modest military spending we guarantee not only military and nuclear parity, but we find ourselves two or three steps ahead of our competitors," Putin said during his annual online Q&A session.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting ahead of his annual question and answer session which is to take place on June 20, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 19, 2019. [Photo: IC]

"Not a single country of the world has such technologically modern weapons like ours. I mean for example hypersonic missile systems," he added.

In February, Putin said in his annual address to the Federal Assembly that Russia is successfully developing the Tsirkon missile fired from surface ships or submarines, which can reach a speed of approximately Mach 9 (about 11,000 kph) and strike a target more than 1,000 km away underwater or on the ground.

Russian experts have said that there is no protection from these missiles.

Putin recalled that Russia is the world's seventh largest country in terms of military spending, equal to 48 billion U.S. dollars a year.

It has been significantly overtaken by the United States, which spends around 720 billion U.S. dollars a year and is now requesting some 750 billion U.S. dollars, he said.

Russia is the only great military power which is constantly reducing military spending, Putin said.

He said that Russia will cut its military spending to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 from 3.4 percent in 2017.

"This is what we should be proud of in our country. And we must respect people working in the sphere of defense science and defense production and to people who organize the development of the military capability," Putin concluded.