Gorbachev Cites Costs of Military : $123.6-Billion Budget for Defense Revealed; 14% Cut Proposed

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev revealed the nation’s military budget today for the first time ever in a speech to the nation’s new Parliament, listing it at $123.6 billion and proposing it be slashed by 14%.

Gorbachev ended the maiden five-day session of the country’s first partially democratic congress in 71 years by fulfilling his promise to make defense spending public.

Gorbachev did not say what percentage of the gross national product Soviet military spending comprised. But Western experts say the Soviet defense spending amounts to about 15% of the GNP, compared to 5% to 7% for the United States.

$17.3 Billion in Cuts

But, he said, “I am now proposing to cut defense spending by 14%” over 1990-91, equal to about $17.3 billion.

The U.S. defense budget proposed by the White House was $315.2 billion, or $16.4 billion more than the 1989 spending figure.

Gorbachev first announced his defense spending cut of 14.2% on Jan. 19 in remarks in Moscow to the members of the Trilateral Commission, a non-governmental organization of politicians and businessmen from the United States, Western Europe and Japan.

Troop Reductions

In a speech Dec. 7 before the United Nations, Gorbachev announced a cut of 500,000 troops from his army, half to come from the European theater.

Gorbachev hopes that slicing defense spending will allow him to start balancing his budget, which last year was estimated by economists at as much as $160 billion in the red.

The deficit budget, a secret acknowledged for the first time last October, was announced by Finance Minister Boris Gostev as $55.8 billion in the red.

But the deficit figure has been revised upward every time economists speak with the press.