Russia: Medvedev announces construction and modernization of thousands of tanks

In response to Western military aid to Russia-attacked Ukraine, ex-Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev has promised to build and modernize thousands of tanks. “As you know, yesterday our enemy begged abroad for planes, missiles and tanks,” Medvedev said on Thursday while visiting a mechanical engineering company in the Siberian city of Omsk.

Medvedev, who is now deputy head of the Russian Security Council, apparently alluded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s trips to London and Paris on Wednesday. “How should we answer?” Medvedev said to employees of the Omsk company, which specializes in weapons production, among other things, according to a video that he himself distributed. “It is clear that in this case it is natural for us to increase the production of various types of weapons and military technology – including modern tanks,” said the 57-year-old. “We’re talking about the production and modernization of thousands of tanks.”

Medvedev, who was Russian President from 2008 to 2012, is considered a close confidant of today’s Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin and an absolute advocate of aggressive war against Ukraine. He now demonstratively had himself filmed in Omsk inspecting armored vehicles.

A law has been in force in Russia since last summer that enables the economy to be more closely aligned with the needs of the army. This means that individual sectors can be obliged to supply the armed forces. Moscow repeatedly claims that it is far superior to Kiev militarily. International secret services and military experts, on the other hand, regularly point out the Russians’ problems with equipment, some of which are serious.