Medvedev: defence is state priority
The development of the Armed Forces will be one of our key tasks, Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev said in yesterday’s meeting with national security leaders. He believes the recent conflict in Georgia illustrates the need for Russia to get new armament and develop a modern and efficient army.
-Now we will concentrate on questions of arms equipment, the president underlines. –This will be one of our key tasks, he added. According to the president, the armed forces will not only get new types of armament. They will also increase their professionalism through “numberous rehersals”, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports. -We have to increase our general preparedness, train our armed forces […], Mr Medvedev said. Defense spending, including arms purchases and pay raises, will reach 1.28 trillion RUB (50 billion USD) in 2008, Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin told lawmakers in Moscow. The increase was approved before the war with Georgia. Kudrin added that the new weapons component of the budget will advance 30 percent, though he declined to give exact figures because that information is classified by the military, the Moscow Times reports.
