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Oil Riches Help Azerbaijan Outgun Armenia in Military Spending

  • Azeris increased defense spending more than 10-fold in decade
  • Oil wealth counts for more than dependence on Russian trade
A Nagorno-Karabakh defense soldier looks over a burned out military vehicle in the village of Talish, north of Stepanakert, on April 6, 2016.

A Nagorno-Karabakh defense soldier looks over a burned out military vehicle in the village of Talish, north of Stepanakert, on April 6, 2016.

Photographer: Karen Minasyan/AFP via Getty Images

In the volatile, decades-long standoff over the breakaway Caucasus territory Nagorno-Karabakh, which flared up this week in fighting that killed dozens of people, one side has the upper hand in military spending.

Bouyed by a surge in oil revenue, Azerbaijan has raised its military spending by at least 10-fold over the last decade to as much as $4.8 billion last year, according to authorities in Baku. That dwarfs the outlays from Nagorno-Karabakh’s ally Armenia, which saw a threefold increase to $447 million, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, released on Tuesday.