MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will modify its military doctrine to add the necessity of import substitutes in weaponry, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council said Tuesday.
“Life shows that the reliability of some of our western partners is temporary and that is because, unfortunately, it is very tight with the political environment,” Mikhail Popov, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, told RIA Novosti in an interview.
A special working group was set up within the framework of the Russian Security Council to introduce amendments to the doctrine, which was last updated in 2010.
According to Popov, the effective functioning of arms “is possible in the conditions of Russia’s technological independence in the production of strategic and other arms, as well as military and special equipment.”
He added that the effective functioning of Russian military and defense industry is “among the most important factors of the ability of our army to ensure the state’s security.”
“It’s obvious that the changes in the military doctrine should be directed at the removal of our dependence on the import of machine tool production, deliveries of raw materials, ready-made materials and parts,” Popov said.
Russia is currently undergoing a $640 billion rearmament program aimed at increasing the share of modern weaponry in Russia’s armed forces to 70 percent by 2020.
Western economic sanctions targeting Russia’s defense sector and Ukraine’s ban on military equipment or dual-use military goods exports to Russia, were among the reasons to seek import substitutes in arms. In June, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it plans to substitute 95 percent of Ukrainian defense imports within the next 2.5 years.
