Vladimir Putin: Russian army must be ready to face new threats in future

The Russian army must be ready to face threats tomorrow that are unlike the wars of past centuries. According to the press office of the Russian Defense Ministry, this was announced today by Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'The strategy and tactics of the Russian army must be flexible, receptive to everything new and capable of changing and developing,' Mr Putin stressed. The president said that professional rapid reactionary subdivisions must be formed by 2007 as planned.

He also said that there are no plans to cut the size of the Russian army considerably. Mr Putin said the Russian army has changed for the better as 'the number of training exercises has almost doubled' and the army and navy have been very successful in their training programmes with foreign allies.