The NATO defence alliance continues to have a military advantage over Russia despite rearmament under President Vladimir Putin, according to a study commissioned by Greenpeace.
The analysis of the military capabilities of the Western alliance and Russia "leaves no doubt about NATO's overall military superiority. Only in terms of nuclear weapons do the two countries have parity," conclude the study's authors, Herbert Wolf and Christopher Steinmetz.
The information from their study does not "justify the need for further and permanent increases in military spending in Germany", the authors write, adding that a "logical consequence" of a higher military budget would be cuts in social services, education or climate protection measures.
For the purpose of the study, Wolf and Steinmetz compared the military potential of NATO and Russia based on six main parameters, including military spending.
They found that NATO countries together currently spend 10 times more on their armed forces than Russia ($1.19 trillion vs. $127 billion). Even removing US spending and taking into account differences in purchasing power, NATO still has a significant advantage ($430 billion vs. $300 billion).
NATO also has a significant advantage in terms of major weapon systems, with members of the defense alliance having a total of 5,406 combat aircraft (including 2,073 in Europe) compared to Russia's 1,026. Only in strategic bombers does Russia nearly reach parity with the United States (129 vs. 140), the study said.
Russia lags behind NATO in many areas of weaponry and is unlikely to be able to catch up in less than a decade, the authors say. NATO also has a larger number of soldiers and a deeper pool of reservists.
Alliance countries dominate the global arms market with more than 70% of total sales.
"Rather than further rearmament, NATO's existing conventional superiority ... should be used as an opportunity to prepare and launch arms control policy initiatives ... at least in Europe," the researchers say.
The authors say the first step should be to save the New START disarmament treaty, the only remaining major nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia. | BGNES
