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Putin devotes 6th election program article to RF national security

The prime minister warned that in the entire world Russia should not “lead anyone into temptation by its weakness”

MOSCOW, February 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian national security can be guaranteed only if the country is really strong, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dwelt on this statement in his 6th election program article, which is published in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Monday. The article is entitled “To be strong: guarantees of national security for Russia”.

The prime minister warned that in the entire world Russia should not “lead anyone into temptation by its weakness” and “will not give up in any case” to build up its strategic deterrence potential.

“We will not be able to build up our international positions, develop economy, democratic institutes, if we cannot protect Russia. If we do not assess the risks of probable conflicts, we will not ensure military-technological independence and will not prepare a worthy, adequate military response as a measure of last resort to react to various challenges,” Putin wrote down.

He recalled that “unprecedented programs for the development of the Armed Forces and the modernization of the defence and industrial sector of Russia” are approved and are being implemented. “All in all, about 23 trillion roubles are allocated for these purposes for a next decade,” he said. In reply to the disputes over the sums of allocations and whether such large-scale allocations are timely, Putin stated, “I am convinced that they are absolutely adequate to the possibilities and resources of the country. The most important thing is that this cannot be delayed to settle the tasks to form modern Armed Forces and reinforce comprehensively the defence potential,” Putin pointed out.

Meanwhile, the Russian budget will not be militarized, the premier remarked. “Actually the allocations that we make is “to pick up the tab” for those years, when the Army and the Navy were chronically underfinanced, when the supplies of new types of weapons were almost not made. Whereas other countries were building up their ‘military muscles’ consistently,” he elaborated.

“The unprecedented scale of the program of armament and modernization of the defence and industrial sector confirms that our intentions are very serious,” Putin remarked. He warns that “Russia will have to attract very massive financial resources to realize these plans.”

“The task is that without exhausting, but augmenting economic forces of the country, create an army and a defence and industrial sector, which will be able to secure Russia’s sovereignty, respect of partners and a firm peace,” the premier noted.

“Building our military policy, modernizing the Armed Forces, we should be guided by the most advanced tendencies in the military art. To lag behind these tendencies means to put ourselves in a vulnerable position beforehand, expose to a risk the country, the lives of our soldiers and officers,” Putin wrote down.

“We should never permit the 1941 tragedy to recur, when the unpreparedness of the country and the Army to the war resulted in enormous human losses,” Putin underlined.