Russian defence expenditure will drive the country’s economic recovery and ensure that Russia emerges even stronger from the current crisis, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told the state-run RIA Novosti today (January 26). “We might underestimate what the military-industrial complex is working on today, but it is on this that we place our hopes for the survival and transformation of our country,” he said. Russia is in the middle of an ambitious
decade-long rearmament program aimed at turning its ageing Soviet-era military organization into a 21st century fighting force by 2020, equipped with some $300bn of hardware. Around 2 million Russians are employed by the defence sector either directly or indirectly, Rogzin said. The Moscow Times