MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Russia’s T-90M ‘Proryv’ main battle tank outshines Western-made Leopard and Abrams tanks by its performance characteristics, Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with Russian media outlets and users of the VKontakte social media network on Thursday.
"We produce worthy types of armament, military and special hardware and weapon systems. The brand names are well known and I can mention just several of them. It is quite obvious that, say, the T-90M ‘Proryv’ is our newest tank. But, to my mind, this is the best tank in the world. In the world! It is, undoubtedly, superior to the Leopard, the Challenger or the Abrams, especially in terms of its performance characteristics and its mass," Medvedev said.
The politician highlighted the Russian tank’s maneuverability, speed and combat efficiency.
In the current situation, "the most important thing is to produce all this in the required amount," Medvedev stressed.
For this purpose, new production facilities are being launched in Russia, he added.
"Some time ago, we did not think about that but the launch of new arms production facilities has become a necessity. Let me remind you that it took the Soviet Union several years to reach at least a balance with Hitlerite Germany during the [1941-1945] Great Patriotic War and weapons did not appear all at once, as was the case with the T-34 [tank], the Katyusha [multiple launch rocket system] and other armaments," Medvedev pointed out.
Speaking about the sufficiency of armor deliveries to Russian troops, the politician suggested "calculating how much our enemy would receive even proceeding from the most optimistic estimates." "Thus, you will get the answer," he said.
Medvedev jokingly suggested a method to encourage the managers of defense enterprises to work even better.
"I recently read cables by Supreme Commander-in-Chief Josef Vissarionovich Stalin on the issues of the defense industry. I won’t tell you about that right now as I do not want to jump ahead and want to read out these telegrams to factory directors to cheer them up. They are worth being mentioned," the politician said.
"Our enemies thought that our industry would collapse, i.e. that we would expend everything. Here are their endless talks: "Shells ran out, tanks ran out, rockets ran out and so forth," he said.