Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces General Valeri Guerassimov in Moscow December 21, 2022. MIKHAIL KURAVLEV / AP
The long-awaited meeting between Vladimir Putin and his military staff on Wednesday, December 21, scheduled for the 301st, and the Russian government is making it its priority for the coming year. “We have no funding restrictions,” the Russian president pounded out to a gathering of generals and senior officials. The country and the government will give whatever the army asks for. »
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The goals of the army for the year 2023 was the agenda of this televised meeting, which was attended by the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, among others. Vladimir Putin and his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attached great importance to presenting an ambitious program and, in particular, announced the commissioning of the new Zircon hypersonic missiles with nuclear capacity “early January”, the opening of naval bases in the two coastal images of cities in Ukraine, Mariupol and Berdyansk, or the increase in production of drones. Most notably, Mr Shoigu proposed increasing the strength of the Russian army to 1.5 million soldiers, ie 350,000 more than the target set by Vladimir Putin in August, which is already on the rise.
Given the immense difficulties in recruiting the army and supplying the existing armed forces, this announcement is very theoretical. Nevertheless, it marks a break with the major military reforms introduced in 2008, which aimed to professionalize a more compact army. Five divisions and more than ten brigades were to be created. The announcement also serves to show the determination of the Russian command in its confrontation with “the combined forces of the West,” as Sergei Shoigu called it.
“The confrontation was inevitable”
The defense minister also acknowledged “particular concerns” about the continued involvement of Westerners in the conflict, illustrated by the reception of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington. He also painted a “positive” picture of the army’s actions over the past year and referred to Moscow’s advances in the Donbass – advances that date back to the spring.
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To complete the picture, the minister went so far as to recall the “success” of the International Military Games organized in August or the “First World Anti-Fascist Congress” or even to congratulate himself for the Russian army preventing a “revolution of colour”. ’ in Kazakhstan in January. Around 100,000 soldiers had been decorated, the defense minister further specified, before construction projects for military hospitals or training centers got underway.
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