The World - News from Feb. 22, 1985

Military spending in the Soviet Union, although slightly increased in the last two years, generally has leveled off since 1976, according to a CIA report to Congress. From 1965 to 1976, the growth in Soviet defense spending averaged about 4% to 5% a year, but after 1976 the rate of increase dropped to about 2% a year, the CIA said in a report last November to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. The CIA report, made public by Sen. William Proxmire (D-Wis.), seemed to contradict Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, who has testified that the Soviet military buildup has proceeded unabated since the 1970s.