In the wake of the disastrous Georgia-Russia Summer war of 2008, Russia and Georgia have finally reached an agreement to re-open one of their few remaining border points. I say "one of their few remainings" as the de even-more facto independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has now limited the amount of direct contact between Russia and Georgia.
The Upper Lars checkpoint has been closed since 2006, most likely in retaliation over Georgian attempts to join NATO.
At the same time, Russian president Medvedev has announced that Russia will update its nuclear weapons. The plan is to develop new missiles while remaining in accord with current nuclear weapons treaties between Russia and the United States. As a reporter from the Christian Science Monitor reports, this is an important update inasmuch as "it is all it has got to defend itself with because its armed forces in general are a shambles."
Referring back to the Russian-Georgian war highlights the generalized failure of the Russian military, with some half of Russian air losses coming from their own ground forces. Russian military doctrine and equipment has fared similarly poorly in client states such as Iraq, where the U.S. military has reliably rolled them up in short order. Given that analysts attribute the Russian victory in South Ossetia to the Ossetian irregulars, it's not surprising that Medvedev is looking for an enhancement to the Russian military that will bring prestige at the very least by dint of never, ever being tested.