Rest assured, or perhaps discomforted: Russian defense spending is several times higher than $43 billion. They lie.
[defensenews.com]

Russia actually has a tiny economy for such a large country, they can spend a huge proportion of it on military, yet it would still not be much. Russia's armed forces are large, yet many of them are armed with weapons that would be considered hang on the wall antiques in the rest of the world.

You should know by now when Australia decides how much to spend on defence, the US government will tell us, and we don't answer back if we know what's good for us.

Because we contract other countries, at exorbitant prices, to build out-of-date war toys that won't be finished for years. Then they get behind on the contract, which incurs more costs. They'll go bust (if we don't pay them extra), and we won't get anything or a refund; so we pay more.
Instead of setting up & manufacturing our own bloody war toys. And ... multi-functioning the machinery to manufacture other equipment & vehicles.
Oh, and we probably pay better wages to our enlistees.

The US outspends Russia by taking money from Americans who are not yet born.

Didn’t we spend the former USSR into bankuptcy?