Abstract:

The paper has examined the results of the treaty provisions related to defence expenditures in NATO member states and compared them with the Russian Federation’s defence expenditures.  By use of appropriate economic tools as well as the available data (sometimes estimated), the authors have proved that the treaty provisions on defence expenditures thresholds of 2% of GDP and 20% on the army’s modernization have not been implemented in most member states. The analysis of the structure of these expenditures  has shown that  NATO member states have predominantly incurred expenditures on personnel of about 56%, contrary to Russia. Moreover, calculation of the expenditures at the USD market rate and according to purchasing power parity ( PPP) has indicated significant inaccuracies in Russia's real expenditures, which are 3 times higher. Maintaining such disparities in the future can threaten security not only in Europe, but also in the world.