Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan among Most Militarized Countries

Three post-Soviet countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, are in the top ten countries that are leaders in the global militarization index (GMI) - 2014, said DW World referring to the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC).

Places from first to tenth are as follows: Israel, Singapore, Armenia, Syria, Russia, Cyprus, South Korea, Jordan, Greece and Azerbaijan.

The researchers note that high levels of militarization in the Middle East are due to several reasons, from the defense of the existing authoritarian regimes from internal enemies to external conflicts and threats from the outside. According to analysts, the high level of militarization in the region can only increase.

With regard to Armenia and Azerbaijan (the third and tenth place in the list, respectively), then, as experts note, in recent years they have begun to significantly increase military capabilities and arms spending. However, the situation in these republics of the Caucasus cannot be considered in isolation from Russia, which supplies weapons to both countries.

The annual GMI has been compiled by BICC since 1990. The level of militarization is measured at several indicators, including the volume of defense budgets in relation to GDP.

In the ranking for 2013 (which takes into account data for the year 2012) Russia was also in the top five - along with Israel, Singapore, Armenia and Syria.

Recall that Azerbaijan's military budget this year is more than 3.7 billion dollars with a population of more than 9 million people. The military budget of Armenia is 427 million USD with a population of just over 2 million people. -02D-