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| Russia announces rearmament plan | Russia announces rearmament plan |
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| Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow will begin a comprehensive military rearmament from 2011. | Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow will begin a comprehensive military rearmament from 2011. |
| "The primary task is to increase the combat readiness of our forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces," he told top military officers. | "The primary task is to increase the combat readiness of our forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces," he told top military officers. |
| Explaining the move, he cited concerns over Nato expansion near Russia's borders and international terrorism. | |
| Last year, the Kremlin set out plans to increase spending on Russia's armed forces over the next two years. | Last year, the Kremlin set out plans to increase spending on Russia's armed forces over the next two years. |
| Russia will spend nearly $140bn (£94.5bn) on buying arms up until 2011. | |
| While this has been made easier while oil revenues were increasing in recent years, correspondents say, the new announcement is a surprise. | |
| But analysts say the brief war in Georgia exposed problems with outdated equipment and practices within Russia's armed forces and led to calls for military modernisation. | |
| Mr Medvedev says the move is necessary in response to the current military situation in the world, says the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow. | |
| Russia has long been angered by Nato's post-Cold War expansion and by the United States' plans to place elements of a missile defence system in parts of Eastern Europe," our correspondent adds. |