Russia Rearms

SU-35

From Time Magazine:

Russia's leaders are getting used to cutting budgets this year. As the country sinks deeper into recession — unemployment, according to some estimates, is as high as 12% and the economy is predicted to shrink by about 4.5% in 2009 — the government is slashing spending at most of its ministries. The Energy Ministry's budget is down by 33%, and that of the Transport Ministry by 30%. But there is one hugely expensive project on which President Dmitri Medvedev has vowed to actually increase spending: transforming Russia's creaking Soviet-era defense industry into a modern technological power, and turning the 1.1-million-man Russian army into a leaner but more effective fighting force.

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My Comment: So much for the idea that President Obama's election will change everything .... it clearly has not.

But as to the issue of Russia's rearming itself .... I would not be too concerned. Russia has a long way to go before it can even be a shell of what it once was.