page_title: Domestic policy of Vladimir Putin
section_title: Military development
hierarchical_section_title: Domestic policy of Vladimir Putin / Military development
caption_attribution_description: English: The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, in the cabin of strategic bomber ТU-160 before the beginning of military exercises by the long-range aircraft of the Air Forces and Northern Fleet, Chkalovsky Airfield, Moscow Region, Russia. Suomi: Venäjän presidentti Vladimir Putin strategisen Tupolev Tu-160 -pommikoneen ohjaamossa Tškalovskin sotilaslentokentällä Moskovan alueella (oblast). Kuva otettu ennen sotilasharjoituksia, joihin osallistui Venäjän ilmavoimien ja pohjoisen laivaston pitkän matkan lentokoneita.
context_page_description: The domestic policy of Vladimir Putin concerns the internal Russian policies of Vladimir Putin during his tenure as President of Russia, as well as the effects of Putinism and the Putin legislative program within Russia. He previously served as president from 2000 to 2008, and has held the position since 2012.
context_section_description: The resumption of long-distance flights of Russia's strategic bombers was followed by the announcement by Russian Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov during his meeting with Putin on 5 December 2007, that 11 ships, including the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov, would take part in the first major navy sortie into the Mediterranean since Soviet times. The sortie was to be backed up by 47 aircraft, including strategic bombers.
  While from the early 2000s (decade) Russia started pumping more money into its military and defence industry, it was only in 2008 that the full-scale Russian military reform began, aimed to modernize Russian Armed Forces and made them significantly more effective. The reform was largely carried by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov during Medvedev's Presidency, under supervision of both Putin, as the Head of Government, and Medvedev, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces.
  Key elements of the reform included reducing the armed forces to a strength of one million; reducing the number of officers; centralising officer training from 65 military schools into 10 'systemic' military training centres; creating a professional NCO corps; reducing the size of the central command; introducing more civilian logistics and auxiliary staff; elimination of cadre-strength formations; reorganising the reserves; reorganising the army into a brigade system; reorganising air forces into an air base system instead of regiments.
  The number of Russia's military districts was reduced to just 4. The term of draft service was reduced from two years to one, which put an end to the old harassment traditions in the army, since all conscripts became very close by draft age. The gradual transition to the majority professional army by the late 2010s was announced, and a large programme of supplying the Armed Forces with new military equipment and ships was started.
  In spite of Putin's call for major investments in strategic nuclear weapons, these will fall well below the New START limits due to the retirement of aging systems.
caption: Putin in the cockpit of a Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber before the flight, August 2005.
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