|
Russia's armed forces should be ready to ward off the threats of the future, and not to fight the wars of the last century, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Defense Ministry Tuesday. According to him, to be up to the task, the strategy and tactics of the army should be more flexible. The armed forces should be receptive to everything modern and advanced, the President stressed.
Mr. Putin also said that the Defense Ministry should meet the deadline of 2007 and form an army where a half would be staffed by volunteer soldiers. This would allow a reduction in the term of military service for draftees to one year beginning 2008.
According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, the size of the country's armed forces has dropped by 30,000 people in 2003. Due to these cuts, the structure of the Russian armed forces was optimized. The Russian armed forces will number 1.132m people by January 1, 2004.
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued an assessment of the US foreign policy. Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Russia was not fully satisfied with America's foreign policy attitudes. In particular, he cited Washington's tendency towards the use of force and unilateral actions, and also "Cold War relics". However, Mr. Ivanov noted that disagreements were quite natural, and the most important thing was that the main goals were the same.
According to Mr. Ivanov, the main element of Russian-US relations at the present stage is the search for ways to cope with global challenges and threats, which no nation can deal with by itself.
|
RUSSIA IN FACTS
