Kremlin pursues military modernization despite economic woes

Hundreds of new Russian aircraft, tanks and missiles are rolling off assembly lines. Russian jets roar through European skies under NATO’s wary eye. Tens of thousands of troops take part in war games showing off the military’s readiness for all-out war. The muscle flexing suggests that Russia’s economic woes so far are having no impact on the Kremlin’s ambitious military modernization program.

The task set by the president not to allow anyone to get a military advantage over Russia will be fulfilled no matter what.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu

Russia is also reviving Soviet-era airfields and opening new military bases in the Arctic. Last fall the military rattled sabers by briefly deploying state-of-the art missiles to Russia’s westernmost exclave and it is planning to send strategic bombers on regular patrols as far as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Russia’s weapons modernization plan envisages spending 20 trillion rubles on new weapons in 2011-2020. It produced some highly visible results last year, with the military receiving the highest numbers of new planes, missiles and armor since the 1991 Soviet collapse.

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