Page 40 - RusRPTMar23

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also made it clear to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the US was keen to continue arms reduction talks, but the Kremlin rejected the offer out of hand unless the Kremlin’s demand that Ukraine could never be admitted to Nato was met first.
The revocation of the 2012 foreign policy law by Putin this week raises concerns about Russia’s future foreign policy objectives and how the country will pursue them. Putin’s decision to abandon the previous “cooperative” framework and replace it with a “national interests” framework suggests a shift towards a more assertive and confrontational foreign policy. This stance was already outlined by Lavrov in the prelude to the war with his “new rules of the game” speech in February 2020, where the veteran foreign minister said the Kremlin would no longer tolerate the Western “deals with one hand, sanctions with the other,” and threatened to break off diplomatic relations with the West. Now those sentiments have been codified.
It remains to be seen how this new foreign policy direction will play out. Commentators said that Putin’s speech was aggressive but at the same time it remained vague as it didn’t layout Putin’s war goals for Ukraine nor did it carry many specific details. Even the announcement of the suspension of the START treaty was a fudge that leaves the door open to new talks. However, the revocation of the 2012 law signals a significant shift towards a new combative relation with the West similar to the policies that dominated the Cold War.
2.12 Russian Defence Ministry plans for development in 2023
The Defence Ministry’s plans to develop the armed forces in 2023 are impressive. They include the establishment of three new motorised rifle divisions, one army corps, two new airborne divisions, the transformation of seven motorised rifle brigades into motorised rifle divisions and the transformation of marine brigades into five divisions and the formation of five district artillery divisions together with the reconstruction of high-capacity artillery brigades, which has been taking place in recent years.
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not clear what sources the aviation divisions allocated to each combined-arms army would be funded from. At the moment, the Russian air force has neither this many aviation divisions nor hundreds of additional aircraft.
40 RUSSIA Country Report March 2023 www.intellinews.com