The Times highly appreciated the combat capability of the Russian army.
British edition The Times analyzed the current state of the Russian army. The translation of the article is published on the portal " InoSMI ".
The main message of the material is that Russia is now a more capable military power than in any other period after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to James Hackett, editor of The Military Balance handbook, after the conflict with Georgia in 2008, Russia invested heavily in modernizing its armed forces, completely updated its tank fleet and heavy artillery systems, and reorganized the Navy.
Dr. John Chipman, Director General of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), believes that concerns caused by the growth of Russia's military potential in recent years have motivated European countries to increase defense spending.They grew by 4.8 percent last year - the highest rate recorded for any region of the world.
In particular, the UK overtook India in the world ranking on this indicator and took the third position after the United States and China
John Chipman emphasizes that today's Russian army is radically different from the one that participated in the short war with Georgia in 2008. Now it mainly consists of contract soldiers, not conscripts, and its weapons, including the nuclear arsenal, are much more modern. Russian cruise missiles can hit targets at a range of more than 2,000 kilometers
In addition, Russia has effective mobile air defense systems and modern air forces.
Oleg Koryakin
