Izvestia: "Putin promises to increase defence spending"
The government will allocate 3 trillion roubles to modernise the defence industry.
Vladimir Putin spent his 59th birthday at work, resolving the problems of the military industrial complex and other issues. The prime minister promised to spend 3 trillion roubles to develop the military industrial complex until 2020.
"The money will be included in the re-equipment programme to 2020 but will be applied strictly for the modernisation of the defence industry," Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told Izvestia.
Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was fired for criticising increased defence spending. Even though Putin promised Kudrin a place on his team, he stressed that the state would not give up its plans for increasing defence spending.
The first 440 billion roubles will be allocated for the defence industry in the next three years. The funds will be set aside in the 2012-2014 federal budget. The money will be spent to update almost every military industrial company or conglomerate, almost 1,700 in all. Peskov said the list of the enterprises was formed in order to be approved in the near future together with the programme for the development of the military industrial complex.
"One of our key priorities is to establish a strong science and technology base to develop innovation in the defence industry," the prime minister assured. "For this reason, we intend to spend some 20% of the funding on research and development."
Putin has already set priority areas for the development of the military industrial complex. Most of the funding will be allocated to the development of the space industry, aviation, shipbuilding, telecommunications and control systems, and the electronics equipment and components industries. Commenting on Putin's words, Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Presidium of the Public Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, said the money must not be spent on big but pointless projects.
Karaganov believes Russia should develop its advanced technology base in aviation, and in the construction of rockets, submarines and warships. At the same time, he suggests Russia should not attempt to create its own military electronics industry as the country is "too far behind" in this area.
"It is obvious that by itself Russia is helpless. It needs cooperation with the West and China," the analyst highlighted.
Anastasia Novikova, Denis Telmanov
