The Russian army will be equipped with 8 new submarines, 100 warships, 600 aircraft and 1000 helicopters totaling 650 billion dollars by 2020. Among the new equipment of the Russian Navy will include two new ship platforms for helicopters, except two who have already purchased from France. The submarines will be armed with ballistic missiles Bualva despite recent problems in testing a new missile. The analysts from the ambitious program makes sense only if it is accompanied by reform of the armed forces. A painful reform to optimize the Russian armed forces is underway. According to the Associated Press this year 200 thousand Russian officers will lose their jobs, 9 of every 10 units will be disbanding. Last week Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced that defense spending will triple from 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) now to 1.5 percent of GDP next year. A significant part of the new funds will be allocated to modernize the Russian navy. Besides submarines will be ordered 35 corvettes and 15 frigates.
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The Russian economy out of recession and began to recover, Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin during an extensive report today on the work of the government last year exported to the State Duma, Russian media reported. According to Putin recession ended the Russian economy and now also the conditions for progress are very good. According to the Russian prime minister that does not mean that the country has gone out of crisis but the recession has ended. Putin reasons that make those findings justify its latest data on the development of Russian economy. He stated that preliminary results for first quarter suggest optimism – the growth of industrial production reached 5.8 percent, while real incomes have risen by 7.4 percent. Russian Prime Minister added that it is very likely the official forecast of growth of gross domestic product for 2010 from 3.1% to be exceeded and it reaches about 4%. Putin noted that the key sectors of the real economy and financial system out of the global test and enter into good shape. Putin stressed in his speech that it is necessary to keep the trend from last year to decrease inflation, when it slowed to 8.8 percent (the lowest level of 18 years) for this year is on average 5-6 %.
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