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Turkmenistan significantly increased arms imports in 2021. This is stated in the annual ranking of peacefulness of the countries of the world, compiled by the Australian Institute of Economics and Peace.

The largest growth in arms imports was recorded in Armenia, Turkmenistan and Qatar. In total, this indicator increased in 92 of the 163 countries reflected in the study. The average growth was 4%. For arms imports in 2021, the largest deterioration in indicators is noticeable throughout the world (and the greatest improvement is in the spread of terrorism, which decreased by an average of 7%). However, the researchers note that while all countries of the world are far from the peak of arms imports recorded in 2012.

At the same time, Turkmenistan is noted as the country where the smallest number of citizens have experienced violence, that is, have become victims of violent crimes. This figure is 1%. In second place from the end are Uzbekistan and Japan with an indicator of 3.1%, in third place is Singapore with an indicator of 4%. It remains unclear where the researchers got the information about the crime rate in Turkmenistan. The country’s authorities do not publish such statistics, and the official media do not even report on individual crimes.