Medvedev Sees Stronger Russian Navy Despite Crisis

Russia has sent warships and strategic bombers on Cold War-style sorties around the globe in what the West sees as muscle-flexing.

Russia's planned expansion of its navy could take longer than expected because of the financial slowdown but will still be implemented in full, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday.

Moscow, keen to play a more assertive role in world politics, last year announced plans to build new types of weapons, including nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.

But after a decade of an oil-fuelled economic boom, Russia's economy is forecast to contract this year amid a global financial crisis, calling into question the credibility of official pledges to spend lavishly on defence programmes.

"Without a proper navy Russia does not have a future as a state," Medvedev said to cadets at the Nakhimov Naval Academy in his native city of St Petersburg.

"We had difficult times in the 1990s, but now despite difficulties the government will indeed invest the funds promised for the navy. Perhaps some things will take longer, but (these projects) will be financed."

Russia has sent warships and strategic bombers on Cold War-style sorties around the globe in what the West sees as muscle-flexing by Moscow.

But after Russia's war with former Soviet Georgia last August, analysts pointed to a need for a smaller, more mobile and better equipped armed forces to tackle regional conflicts rather than a Soviet-style army designed to fight NATO.

Military experts also say that while the Kremlin can now spend more cash after years of high prices for its oil exports, many of its military enterprises lack highly skilled workers or technologies to produce the newest weapons.

Russia's navy announced last July that it planned to receive five or six aircraft carriers in the near future. But all of the Soviet Union's aircraft carriers were built in Ukraine which now aspires to join NATO.

Russia now has only one aircraft carrier but it carries fewer aircraft than U.S. carriers and features a steam-turbine power-plant, while all modern carriers are nuclear-powered.

Meanwhile, the introduction of the newest "Bulava" nuclear missile, designed for new submarines of the "Borei" (Arctic Wind) class, has been delayed due to a series of failed tests.