It seems to fit with their current military strategy of maintaining a few, extremely-large and potent weapons systems. In the Soviet days they threw nothing away, and tried to keep hundreds of non-complementary systems running, wasting tremendous resources at the same time.
Current budget realities preclude these activities. Russia is now banking on super-sized ICBMs and missile submarines, and their navy and air force has reverted to coastal defense. The upside to this is that fewer maintenance troops and combat crews are needed. The downside of putting a lot a eggs in one basket - a potent foe like the US probably has sufficient naval, air, and missile forces to take it all out.
Against a smaller foe (China, EU, or one of the Absurdistany), however, it makes sense to have fewer, more dependable systems. It's not an arms race, not a slap in the face - merely Russia looking after her own interests.