Russia needs to modernize its military arsenals to deter others from grabbing its resources, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says in an article published Monday.

Russia's top military officer threatens to carry out a pre-emptive strike on U.S.-led NATO missile defence facilities in Eastern Europe if Washington goes ahead with its controversial plan to build a missile shield.

The Harper government had a host of military and possibly commercial reasons for not blaming and shaming Russia in the aftermath of an embarrassing spy scandal involving a junior intelligence officer, a series of internal briefings suggest.