Thread: Russia announces rearmament plan

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow will begin a comprehensive military rearmament from 2011.

"The primary task is to increase the combat readiness of our forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces," he told top military officers.

In explaining the move, Mr Medvedev said Nato was pursuing military expansion near Russia's borders.

Last year, the Kremlin set out plans to increase spending on Russia's armed forces over the next two years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7947824.stm



More sabre rattling from the Ruskies or something more serious?

Is this not just Saber rattling as NATO expands in to old Soviet Countries.
Russian leaders need to be seen to be doing something against NATO.
I thought the Russian forces were short of money etc?

If the Russians were to join forces with us against the Taleban and Iran, there would be a good cocktail

Like the report says, their skirmish in georgia probably higlighted that they have fell behind in recent years with their hardware and practices, looks like their going pour alot of money into updating, seems pretty standard for the russkies to ignore more immediate economic threats in favour of military spending. Their focus on nuclear spending is a bit worrying, what with iran still chasing the nuclear dream, could all be a bit inflammatory.

edited for my mong spelling

Rant on...........

Jesus wept, its THEIR when something belongs to someone and THERE when referring to somewhere eg. over THERE

Rant over.

Originally Posted by unemployable

Is this not just Saber rattling as NATO expands in to old Soviet Countries.
Russian leaders need to be seen to be doing something against NATO.
I thought the Russian forces were short of money etc?

They are:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009...fx6173169.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...nomy-recession

It's a fantasy without detail - almost on a par with this little gem from yesterday, which as something of a space geek I found laughable:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7946689.stm

Lots of brave talk but they simply don't have the money to fund it.

It's all very well threatening/promising/hoping to increase defence spending and gets lots of new toys for the Generals and Admirals to play with, but there is the problem of getting trained and motivated soldiers. The Soviet/Russian Army has a long history of soldiers disinterested or poorly motivated because of maltreatment and poor conditions of service.

Originally Posted by unemployable

Is this not just Saber rattling as NATO expands in to old Soviet Countries.

NATO is no longer “expanding� (present continuous), into old Soviet Countries.

Individual countries who had been former members of the Warsaw Pact (WP); and the three Baltic State former members of the Soviet Union; did (past tense) all voluntarily/of their free will - ask to join NATO, but that was some FIVE years ago.

http://www.nato.int/issues/enlargement/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ma...onological.gif

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The most recent expansion came with the accession of seven Northern European and Eastern European countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. These nations were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague summit, and joined NATO on March 29, 2004,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlargement_of_NATO

Although USA did talk about separate bi-lateral agreements with Ukraine, and with Georgia, it must be remembered that the USA is not NATO. The European members of NATO have made it quite clear that Ukraine, and also Georgia, will not be joining NATO for quite some time.

A little “light� background reading, can be found at:

http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/...tart=2400.html

Originally Posted by RCT(V)

Originally Posted by Domovoy

With Georgia's hopes of quickly joining the NATO alliance deferred for the moment, Tbilisi is placing its hopes in the next best thing -- a bilateral security pact with the United States.

Details of the emerging accord are still unclear, but Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said the two sides are already discussing a "framework agreement" proposed by U.S. officials.

http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?o...061&Itemid=132

It will be a grand present from Bush to Obama! Unless of course Obama is planning to continue in Bush's footsteps...

I certainly did, and I think some others also, suggested exactly this course of action, many pages back!

(The article at Domovoy’s LINK, is worth reading !).

Originally Posted by Ord_Sgt

Lots of brave talk but they simply don't have the money to fund it.

If Soviet/Russian politicians claim something loudly then likely something quite opposite would happen.

If moron Putin with his puppet dwarf, so called 'president' Medvedev decide to make some steps in defence sphere then why to cry about it openly? Answer: to fool those who still thinks that politicians make declaration to inform. Ha! Rather to disinform.

As for money, then there is no money for Russian pensioners but as for some 'toys' for big boys then there would be no problem.

They want to sort their country out first before they go about trying to be a superpower again. They,ve got a long way to go.

Originally Posted by KGB_resident

. . . . If moron Putin with his puppet dwarf, so called 'president' Medvedev decide to make some steps in defence sphere then why to cry about it openly? Answer: to fool those who still thinks that politicians make declaration to inform. Ha! Rather to disinform.

Steady Sergey!

As we have all seen photos of your "Dom", I am sure THEY must also know where you live!

If you do get a "knock at the door" during the night, will “Mrs KGB_resident� be able to notify the rest of us.

When they can get the ex-Gorshkov to India I'll start taking these shipbuilding plans seriously

Originally Posted by RCT(V)

Originally Posted by KGB_resident

. . . . If moron Putin with his puppet dwarf, so called 'president' Medvedev decide to make some steps in defence sphere then why to cry about it openly? Answer: to fool those who still thinks that politicians make declaration to inform. Ha! Rather to disinform.

Steady Sergey!

As we have all seen photos of your "Dom", I am sure THEY must also know where you live!

If you do get a "knock at the door" during the night, will “Mrs KGB_resident� be able to notify the rest of us.

Unfortunately she doesn't speak English. And unlikely it (the notification) would be ever needed.

Current gang of the thieves that runs Russia now dosn't use Stalin type methods. Politi-technologies, brainwashing are being used instead. The people is being fed by shows on TV and Putin's agitprop as 'news'. Just now I'm watching EuroNews on TV (freely avilable in Russia through federal TV-5). But who cares about EuroNews?. The Russians regard it rather dull, uninteresting.

The restructuring is old news. They are moving away from the Division concept to more mobile options and getting rid of a large percentage of the Officer Corps who do very little.