Mr. Putin stressed that effective armed forces were the most important factor protecting Russia against potential aggression. In view of this, the President stressed the necessity of improving the combat readiness of the armed forces. In the first place, he said, reforms were needed in combat-ready units. According to Mr. Putin, they should become the backbone and the main striking force of the Russian army.

Another important task, the President said, was to provide the army with new weapons and military equipment. He also said it was necessary to develop a system of social provision for the army and implement a mortgage program. Mr. Putin noted that RUR 2bn (about $70m) was earmarked for the program.

According to the Russian President, important decisions have been made regarding new weapons and military equipment. In particular, he stressed that significant progress had been achieved in creating the basic variant of a new missile system and developing a new generation of firearms. Mr. Putin added that Russia was successfully testing new nuclear-missile systems.

For his part, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov said Russia’s general purpose forces were not fully up to standard. According to him, the improvement of the army’s combat potential was a priority. In 2004, the Defense Ministry did not manage to qualitatively improve conditions or raise the combat potential of combat-ready units up to the necessary standards. “Only 64 percent of the country’s general purpose forces meet this requirement, against 62 percent in 2003,” Mr. Ivanov remarked.