Maxim Tovkailo
Amendments to the law on competition will soon be submitted to the State Duma.
Opening yesterday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin listed his latest anti-crisis measures: supporting Russian farmers by subsidising part of the loan interest rate and raising import duties on farm produce, encouraging demand for Russian cars by increasing state orders, developing the leasing market, and compensating citizens wishing to buy on credit a car in 2009 worth not more than 350,000 roubles for 8.6% of the loan rate.
Although Mr Putin proposed no new measures, he suggested that the cabinet implement those already adopted, and besides promote competition in the Russian economy. "If our efforts are not accompanied with growing competition, we will risk getting the opposite result: ineffective operations will persist and will seriously handicap economic development in the future, in the post-crisis period," he said.
Yesterday, the cabinet discussed amendments to the law on competition. Very shortly, the Government will submit them to the State Duma. Once they are in effect, the Government will be able to lay down rules for non-discriminatory access to commodity markets and to natural monopoly goods. The law on state purchases will also apply to monopolies and state corporations.
Amendments to the competition law will likewise raise the cap on company sales and assets below which the anti-monopoly body is not required to authorise a deal. The top plank on assets will be raised from three billion to seven billion roubles, and on sales, from six billion to 10 billion roubles.
Also yesterday, the Government approved the draft of a state defence order for 2009 and for the planning period through 2011.
Four trillion roubles is to be spent on defence over the next three years, partly to compensate defence industry plants for the lack of working capital due to rising loan costs.
The army is scheduled to receive 400 new pieces of armaments (perhaps, including unmanned aerial vehicles of Israeli manufacture), while the counter-terrorist units of the Defence Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and the FSB will be 100% equipped with modern military hardware. In addition, the Government will purchase 100,000 flats for servicemen's needs in the next three years.
