Vladamir Putin
Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin announced Monday that some US$770 billion will be put towards building up the country’s military so it can better protect its natural resources.
“We mustn’t tempt anyone with our weakness,” Putin wrote in the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The money will be given to the military over the next ten years and put towards buying “more than 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles, more than 600 combat aircraft, dozens of submarines and other navy vessels and thousands of armored vehicles,” reports CBS News.
Putin did not say what country he thinks is going after Russia’s natural resources, but he has previously voiced concerns over American re-equipmenting of some of its long-range nuclear missiles with conventional warheads. The PM has also said he believes a proposed missile defense shield for Europe that NATO argues is to protect the continent from Iran is really meant to negate Russia’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
“Amid global economic upheavals and other shocks there always is a temptation to solve one’s problems by using force to apply pressure,” Putin wrote, pointing at arguments that resources of global significance shouldn’t be subject to national sovereignty and should be shared.
Putin is running for the Russian presidency, an office he used to occupy only years ago. The election is set for March 4.
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