Russia is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in its armed forces in a bid to restore the reputation it had under the Soviet regime as a mighty military machine. The first in a three-part series on Russia’s rearmament looks at the extent of the degradation of its forces and the internal reforms the military must undergo to bring it back up to strength.
AFTER years of neglect, Russia’s large-scale re-armament of its military is now well underway, with a massive procurement budget of US$646 billion (19.4 trillion rubles).
The scale of the plans, announced in 2010 and begun last year, has alarmed some foreign observers. But con...
