Russia is vigorously strengthening its military.

(Baonghean) - Recently, Russia has been publicly revealing its intention to carry out a large-scale military buildup. These moves are consistent with recent international public opinion that President Putin is the one who is restoring Russia's status as a great power and it is not necessarily stopping there.

Specifically, on December 11, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin declared that Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons to

Mr. Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Russian defense industry. Photo: RIANovosti

The possibility of using nuclear weapons in response to a conventional non-nuclear attack shows that Russia is ready to change its military doctrine. The reason given to explain this change is that Russia is currently lagging behind the US in the race to develop strategic conventional weapons. This is completely grounded when Russia makes accusations that the US development of such weapons will destabilize the world.

Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin's statement that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a non-military attack came a day after President Vladimir Putin pledged to continue pursuing Russia's ambitious armed forces modernization program and expanding its military presence in the Arctic region. President Putin pointed out that Russia needs to be wary of the US Navy's presence in the Arctic Ocean because it would take only 15-16 minutes for a US missile to reach Moscow from a submarine in the Barents Sea.

Along with the above statement, the Russian Army said it will recruit half a million contract soldiers because the country is seriously lacking new recruits and is trying to carry out large-scale military reforms. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on December 10 that the Russian army will have 500,000 soldiers serving under the contract regime in the next decade. According to the plan, Russia will reduce conscripts and double contract soldiers, by 2022, half of the Russian armed forces will be "professional" soldiers. Currently, the number of contract soldiers in the Russian army is 220,000.

Russia is currently implementing major military reforms, including spending $650 billion on new equipment and shifting from a conscript army to a military composed mainly of professional soldiers. Defense Minister Shoigu said his ministry would continue large-scale rapid response exercises in 2014. Since the beginning of this year, the Russian military has conducted six surprise inspections of combat readiness and carried out nearly 750 planned army-level exercises.

Chi Linh Mountain