Russia: May 20, 2004

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Russian military doctrine has taken a major shift, with troops now organized and trained mainly for peacetime needs. For more than a century, the Russian armed forces were organized mainly for rapid expansion and then fighting a major war. The huge Russian reserve army system is thus being done away with. This was somewhat inevitable, as hundreds of weapons and equipment storage areas (for the tanks, artillery and supplies for reserve divisions) have fallen into disrepair and been plundered over the last decade. The Russian armed forces are now getting the money to buy new equipment, but just for the active duty forces.