Putin noted that as
far as defense spending goes, Russia ranked seventh in the world.
MOSCOW, March 2.
/TASS/. Russia is not going to fight against anyone and it is laying the
groundwork so that other countries, too, will not have the slightest urge to
unleash an armed conflict with Moscow, President Vladimir Putin has said.
"We are not
going to fight against anyone. We are going to create conditions so that nobody
wants to fight against us," Putin told TASS in an interview for the
project entitled "20 Questions with Vladimir Putin".
Putin recalled that
as far as defense spending goes, Russia ranked seventh in the world, trailing
the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and even Japan.
"Moreover, our
annual expenditures are falling. In contrast, other countries’ [military]
spending has been rising," he added.
He pointed to a
unique situation where Russia was no longer lagging behind from the standpoint
of its defense capabilities.
"For the first
time, we have created such offensive strike systems which the world has never
seen. Now they are chasing after us trying to catch up. This is a unique
situation. This has never happened before," Putin emphasized.
He explained that in
the first place he was referring to the newly-created hypersonic attack
systems, including inter-continental ones.
Also, he recalled that
back in 2000 the Russian army had a strength of 1.3 million, but now it was a
little over 1 million and the share of top-notch operational equipment had
soared to nearly 70% from 6%.
Source: ITAR-TASS
02-03-2020
