The Russian military is still heavily dependent on Soviet-era equipment and leadership (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
Inside Putin's Ambitious Push To Modernize The Russian Military -- Benjamin Quénelle,Les Echos/Worldcrunch
Vladimir Putin has made a priority out of expanding and updating the military capacity of the Russian military, but there is still much heavy lifting required to move beyond the mechanical and human rust of the Soviet era.
MOSCOW - "Our military can now match the West!" There is no shortage of pride from Sergei Skorniakov, deputy commander of the Yaroslav Moudry, the crown jewel of the Russian navy's Baltic fleet.
The battleship has been presented as a symbol of the "Renaissance" of the fleet, moored in a naval base in Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave tucked between Poland and Lithuania, where the Kremlin is threatening to deploy its Iskander close-range missiles and S-400 anti-aircraft missiles. The majority of the men are now volunteers rather than conscripts; both the control crew and the sailors on deck have seen their salaries double. Aboard the ship everyone repeats that they finally feel respected after the military reforms of Vladimir Putin, the past and current occupant of the Kremlin.
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My Comment: It took the Chinese military 25 years of steady growth to be viewed as a serious force .... and probably another 25 years of growth to become a major player on the international scene .... maybe. Russia has to see it the same way. But with a culture of corruption coupled with an industrial base that is inefficient and old .... I have trouble seeing Putin and his successors being successful in their goal of developing a military that is at least comparable to NATO .... and definitely not in the next 10 years.
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