The three Baltic states that split from Russia at the end of the Cold War have almost doubled their spending on arms since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Crimea, and it’s expected to double again in the next two years, according to a new IHS Markit report.
In the past two years, their combined spending on military equipment rose to $390 million this year from $210 million in 2014, IHS analysts said. They predicted it would reach $670 million by 2018. Latvia and Lithuania have the fastest growing defense budgets in the world.
