A total of 124 billion roubles for servicemen's apartments.
Vladimir Putin is on a working leave in Sochi. Although he will not stay long, Sochi, as usual, will temporarily become the "nerve centre of Russian politics".
Immediately upon arriving in Sochi on Friday the Russian Prime Minister chaired a meeting to put the finishing touches on the state defence order for 2010. He noted that in spite of the crisis the Government would increase the defence order by 1.2% next year. Financing for defence-related R&D and the supplies of arms and military hardware will remain at the same level. "As with other sectors, we have identified priorities where we will concentrate our resources. As far as the armed forces are concerned, these include maintaining and developing our strategic nuclear potential, the space and missile defence assets, providing the forces with modern strike weapons, systems of control, reconnaissance and communication and the strengthening of the military infrastructure in key strategic areas," Vladimir Putin said, adding that the Government would finance the procurement of kit for the Army and Navy as well as fuel and lubricants.
The Government will also work to improve the living conditions of the military. By 2010 all servicemen will have permanent flats. "Of course it will be hard to do, considering the strain on the budget, the budget deficit and other financial and economic problems," the prime minister admitted. "But we will do it. We will spend 124 billion roubles on this. In spite of the crisis this is 50 million roubles more than this year."
It was left to Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov to break the main news. The state defence order for next year has already been put together, agreed with all the Government agencies, including the finance and economic agencies, and will be submitted to the Finance Ministry on August 20 to be included in the budget. "All the ministries and agencies, about 20 in all, which are members of the Military Industrial Commission, have agreed that six main priorities should be strictly adhered to in terms of armed forces supplies," Ivanov said. Financing a full programme for the development of the strategic nuclear forces, space and missile-oriented space defence, long-term contracts between the Defence Ministry and defence industries, maintaining the capability of general-purpose forces, modernisation of the forces, including the Black Sea Fleet and purchasing additional aircraft and communications equipment would cost 470 billion roubles, the Deputy Prime Minister said. He specified that in 2010 the Government would procure Iskander-M strategic missiles and X-102 cruise missiles, ships and submarines as well as SU-27 SM, SU-30MK-2, SU-35 and SU-34 planes.
Defence industry companies count on prompt Government action because with diminishing exports the state defence order has become their main source of revenue. However, the Defence Ministry is in no hurry to sign contracts with sectorial plants and the latter are in financial straits. Vladimir Putin on Friday spoke of the need to speed up the conclusion of contracts for which the Government has allocated 200 billion roubles. "That work should not be disrupted," the Prime Minister said.
Pier Sidibe
Sochi
By the way
From our information, the meeting included a discussion on not only the state defence order but also ways to fight the Somalian pirates. Among the numerous documents provided to the participants in the meeting with the Prime Minister was one entitled "Protecting Russian Marine Navigation and Counteracting Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia". Three Russian crew members from a container ship were released a week ago. The ship had been hijacked by Somalian pirates in the Indian Ocean 700 km from the Somalian coast on April 4.
Pier Sidibe