Russia stays second-largest arms exporter despite 64% plunge & four-year war
Russia claims to remain the world's second-largest arms exporter with $15 billion in sales for 2025, despite conflicting data from international monitors. SIPRI reports a 64% decline in Russian arms exports, ranking the country third behind the U.S. and France.
Why it matters
Accurate tracking of global arms trade is critical for understanding geopolitical power shifts and the impact of international sanctions on the Russian defense sector.
Russia has claimed it remained the world’s second-largest arms exporter in 2025, with arms sales worth around $15 billion, or 12.55 per cent of the global market, according to a new estimate by the Kremlin-backed Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade (TSAMTO).The estimate follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement in January that Russia had supplied military products to more than 30 countries in 2025, generating more than $15 billion in foreign-currency revenue.According to Defence Express, Russia has largely stopped publishing data on the fulfilment of arms-export contracts since 2022, meaning the $15 billion estimate is not based on confirmed deliveries but primarily on Putin’s statement about more than $15 billion in foreign-currency revenue.The latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), published on March, 2026, present a sharply different picture of Russia’s arms exports.
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