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Russia's Crimea Grab Still Ripples Through Nearby Budgets
Putin's annexation sends Baltic defense spending soaring
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Two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin swiped Crimea, the fallout from his Ukrainian land grab continues to reverberate through nearby budgets.
It’s most visible in Lithuania, whose split from the Soviet Union was among the bloodiest of the communist collapse. The government there raised defense spending by more than 30 percent in 2015, outdoing NATO’s 27 other members. Poland boosted expenditure the third-most, while Baltic neighbors Latvia and Estonia, which share borders with Russia, were fifth and eighth.