WEBVTT

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The army.

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Ok, and…?

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The armour is strong and our tanks are fast, right?

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Sure. Az okh un vey! [Yiddish expression.] And our tanks are fast.

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Who are we going to fight against?

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We are not going to fight against anyone.

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We are going to create conditions so that nobody wants to fight against us,

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so that such idea hits nobody.

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There is a notion of reasonable adequacy.

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Yes, there is. That’s what we adhere to.

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Today we rank seventh as far as military spending goes.

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The US has outstripped us, Donald [Trump] told me,

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they have approved a huge budget for the next year,

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$738 billion, I think.

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Did he brag?

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No, he said this with regret. He said the costs were too high.

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But he had to do it. He actually advocated disarmament, as he said.

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Why then won’t he sign all those treaties?

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That is another question.

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This is a question of how one understands security and how 

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to ensure it. We can discuss this topic.

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With him or with me?

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I can discuss it both with him and with you. Doesn’t matter.

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I'm well-versed on this issue, I can discuss it with anyone.

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I think this is actually a mistake.

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The New START should be extended. But this is another issue.

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So, the US is ranked first in terms of spending,

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while China comes in second.

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Saudi Arabia, strangely enough, is ranked third,

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then comes Great Britain, France,

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and Japan. Japan has surpassed us,

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as we come in seventh.

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Moreover, our spending is falling each and every year.

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In contrast, other countries’ military spending has been rising.

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And we are not going to fight against anybody,

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but we are creating such a situation in the defence sector so that 

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nobody even dares to think about fighting us.

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And now there is a unique situation,

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I have recently spoken about it at the Defense Ministry.

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This is the first time in modern Russia.

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We always had to catch up with our, figuratively speaking, competitors.

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The first atomic bomb was created by the Americans.

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We caught up with them.

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Then the first strategic aircraft to deliver these weapons were also 

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made by the Americans. We caught up to them, again.

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The first missiles were developed by the Americans.

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We still caught up. For the first time,

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we have created such offensive strike systems which 

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the world has never seen. Now they are trying to catch up with us.

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This is a unique situation. This has never happened before.

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I mean, first of all, hypersonic offensive systems,

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including intercontinental ones.

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In 2000, slightly over 1,300,000 people served in our army, now –

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a little more than a million.

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We increased the share of modern equipment by just 1 

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percent a year back then.

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The share of modern equipment was only 6 percent.

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And now, do you know how much, do you? Almost 70 [percent].

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It's just like Chekhov’s principle,

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if there is a "hypersonic" rifle hanging on the wall,

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in the second or third chapter it will unquestionably go off.

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That may be true for the theatre.

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Security and political reality are governed by another rule.

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Do you know which one? It will go off if it is hanging just on one stage.

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And if a similar rifle is hanging on a stage close by,

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it is unlikely that anyone near it would want to use it.

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This is exactly the situation that is called strategic 

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stability and the balance of power.

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Due to this strategic balance, the world has avoided major military 

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conflicts after World War II.

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Precisely thanks to this strategic stability and strategic balance.

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By the way, while developing their anti-ballistic missile system,

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the Americans wanted to upset this strategic stability and balance 

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thinking that if they created a missile defence umbrella,

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the other side wouldn’t be able to respond adequately if 

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they use nuclear weapons.

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However, after having developed these modern systems,

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including those which easily evade any anti-missile ballistic system,

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we maintain this strategic stability and strategic balance.

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It is essential not only for us, but also for global security.