In addition to writing for Aviation Week Network, Maxim holds a key position at Russia's Air Transport Observer magazine (www.ato.ru). In the past he was in charge of several ATO sister aerospace publications and earlier worked for the Moscow-based CAST defense think-tank.
Maxim has a degree on international relations from MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia, and for several years worked at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Russia plans to boost defense expenditures in 2011 to continue reequipping its armed forces. Rearmament is part of a reform that will transform the military into a smaller, more effective force. According to the federal budget for 2011, defense expenditures will be 1.52 trillion rubles ($49.5 billion), a 19.3% increase from 2010. This means defense budget growth returns to pre-economic crisis rates after a slowdown in 2010, when it increased 3.4% from 2009.
Russia continues to reform its military to face regional threats, the most serious of which comes from the Caucasus. The new military doctrine approved in February 2010 marks the transition from the threat perception of the Cold War to a more realistic scenario. The doctrine recognizes the decreased possibility of a large-scale war being launched against Russia, while identifying conflicts in neighboring regions and terrorism as among the major external threats.
Russia continues to develop its nuclear deterrent as part of a general rearmament of the armed forces (see p. 53). Planned expenditures on nuclear weapons in 2011 will grow by 44% compared with 2010 and amount to $870 million. According to Viktor Zavarzin, head of the parliament’s defense committee, expenditures for weapons procurement, modernization of the country’s nuclear triad and maintaining the triad’s combat readiness will increase by 50% during the next three years.
