Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

eferencing the progress made on the modernization
of Russia’s conventional forces under the “New Look”
reforms undertaken after the Russo-Georgian War,
which, as George Hudson <strong>and</strong> Evgeny Buzhinsky explain
in their chapter in this volume, had revealed so
many deficiencies. At the same time, Makarov called
attention to the obsolete or obsolescent Soviet equipment
still used by the Russian armed forces <strong>and</strong> noted
the inferiority of new Russian-built equipment in
many areas to models produced abroad. He called attention
to new structures that would ensure greater
coordination in the Russian military-industrial complex.
Noting the shortage of conscripts fit for military
service, Makarov said that the armed forces would
be staffed by contract soldiers. “We will conduct this
matter in such a way so that our army will gradually
become professional.” 16
On November 23, President Medvedev issued
a sharp statement on the lack of progress towards a
<strong>NATO</strong>-Russia agreement on a joint approach to European
missile defense, complaining that the hopes
stimulated by President Barack Obama’s initiatives
in 2009, which had prepared the stage for the reset
of U.S.-Russian relations <strong>and</strong> laid the foundation for
START III, had come to naught. Medvedev outlined a
series of measures that Russia would take in response
to the U.S. failure to provide a legally binding declaration
that the system was not intended to undermine
the combat stability of Russian offensive nuclear
forces. These Russian measures included putting the
air <strong>and</strong> missile defense radar complex in Kaliningrad
Oblast on alert status; investment in a system of aero-space
defense to protect strategic nuclear forces;
improvement of Russian l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> sea-based ballistic
missiles to penetrate missile defenses; improved war-
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