YAROSLAVL, November 12. /TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin once again expressed surprise with the worried reaction of the Western counterparts to the military drills of the Russian Armed Forces.
"Our Armed Forces are not threatening anybody," he said during a meeting with the Avtodiesel Company. "I would like to stress once again, to make sure everyone hears - not only people in this hall."
"But they (the Armed Forces) are efficient, they are now modern and highly effective. They have increased multiple times the number of drills, including unplanned ones, which for some reasons from time to time worry our counterparts, let us call them so now."
"Whenever they are having drills, we do not worry, but they for some reason begin worrying at once, they are so nervous," he said.
"I am saying once again, and it is important, we are not threatening anyone, we are not going to threaten anyone. Why? We have the biggest territory in the world, like I have said, everyone knows it, and we need to provide effectively security of our own country, of our own people," Putin said. "Our Armed Forces are capable of doing it, and we shall continue developing them."
The president spoke about the national program to develop the Armed Forces.
"They (the Armed Forces) should be most compact, but highly effective, thus we shall continue the structural reform, and we shall continue to optimize the personnel, without whatever mass cuts," Putin said.
Russia will continue paying special attention, he said, to the components of the Armed Forces like IT, reconnaissance, both agent-and technology-based, communication systems, and modern and high-technology weapons.