vladimir putin has put on a show of russia's military strength after mobilising the entire 'northern fleet' of 45,000 troops, 41 ships, 15 submarines and 110 aircraft in what was one of the kremlin's biggest shows of force since its ties with the west plunged to cold war lows, the exercises seemed to be aimed at dwarfing nato drills in neighbouring norway president mr putin   who has promised to spend more than 21 trillion roubles (£228billion) by the end of the decade to overhaul russia's fighting forces   called the fleet to full combat readiness full combat readiness: russian president vladimir putin (pictured yesterday) has promised to spend more than 21 trillion roubles (£228billion) by the end of the decade to overhaul russia's fighting forces  the country’s defence minister sergei shoigu said: ‘new challenges and threats to military security require the armed forces to further boost their military capabilities’ ‘special attention must be paid to newly created strategic formations in the north’ mr putin made his first public appearance since march 5 yesterday   an absence from view that had fuelled feverish speculation over his health as well as his grip on power he was meeting kyrgyz president almazbek atambayev at the constantine palace outside russia's second city of st petersburg flag: the exercises are due to last for much of the week during which russia will celebrate its annexation of the ukrainian peninsula of crimea (pictured yesterday in simferopol) norway is currently holding its ‘joint viking’ drills involving 5,000 troops in finnmark county, which borders russia in the resource rich arctic circle where both countries are vying for influence tensions between russia and europe worsened last year, leading eight northern european nations to promise to boost cooperation to counter an increase in moscow's military activity nato made new allegations last week that russia was arming separatists in east ukraine, where more than 6,000 people have been killed in nearly a year of fighting the west and kiev accuse russia of supplying arms and soldiers to support the pro russian separatists moscow denies the claims talks: mr putin (right) was meeting kyrgyz president almazbek atambayev (left) at the constantine palace outside russia's second city of st petersburg yesterday  nato says it counted more than 100 intercepts of russian planes into members' airspace last year, three times more than in 2013 the intercepts have forced civilian planes to change their courses and britain scrambled typhoon interceptor planes after two long range bombers flew over the english channel norway said its military drills had been planned before the ukraine crisis ‘however, the current security situation in europe shows that the exercise is more relevant than ever,’ lieutenant general haga lunde said the russian exercises are due to last for much of the week during which russia will celebrate its annexation of the ukrainian peninsula of crimea, carried out with the help of special forces
march 5 joint viking' norway putin first finnmark yesterday 228billion
mr putin has promised to spend £228billion to overhaul fighting forces  president made his first public appearance yesterday since march 5  norway holding 'joint viking' drills involving 5,000 troops in finnmark 