OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu considers monitoring the US deployment of intermediate-range nuclear forces to be one of the main tasks of the military in 2020.

“We need to conduct a thorough analysis of potential military threats and outline measures to improve the armed forces,” Shoygu said at a meeting of the Ministry, at which the main directions of activities in 2020 were discussed. He added that the results of the analysis will be taken into account when preparing the country’s defense plan for 2021–2025.

The Minister of Defense also noted the need for further rearmament of Russian troops. According to him, about 68 % of the state defense order funds of 1.5 trillion roubles (about 24.5 billion US dollars) allocated for this purpose this year will be spent to purchase the latest weapons.