Izvestia: “Rogozin to reform defence procurement system”
The new deputy prime minister will revive the defence industry in accordance with the plan outlined in his article in the Izvestia newspaper.
Vladimir Putin has held his first working meeting with his new Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin. Rogozin is taking over defence duties from Sergei Ivanov, who has been appointed Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. Apart from defence he will also be in charge of the space industry and nuclear energy. All civil matters previously covered by Ivanov will be divided between the other deputy prime ministers, Rogozin told Izvestia. Therefore, no new deputy prime ministers will be appointed.
Rogozin started in his new role on Saturday, the day after the decree was signed. Over the weekend, Rogozin managed to move into Ivanov's former office, take over his cases and plan his first business trips: the new deputy prime minister is planning to visit the key corporations involved in the defence industry. Rogozin promised to present his plans for the modernisaion of the defence industry to Putin in the near future. He said that defence enterprises should undergo a "new industrialization" to become leaders of the national economy and that they needed to attract new specialists.
"The prime minister outlined my authorities to me. They deal solely with the military sphere, all other authorities from Sergei Ivanov dealing with civil matters will be redistributed between the other deputy prime ministers," Rogozin told Izvestia. "I am going to concentrate my efforts and focus on the urgent measures needed to restore our national defence industry."
Rogozin has recently described part of his plans in an article published in Izvestia. He said he would be following through on all of the proposals outlined in the plan. Putin has put him in charge of developing the industry as a matter of urgency, as well as reforming the defence procurement system. "It is impossible to solve issues on reequipping weapon systems without modernising the defence procurement itself. Huge resources, amounting to three trillion roubles, have been allocated for this purpose. They need to be spent in the most efficient manner," Rogozin said.
Putin noted that Rogozin will have to balance the interests of the Defence Ministry and the defence companies themselves. While the ministry is seeking to reduce costs, the factories want to get at least a minimum return from their government orders so that they have some funds left over to modernise their enterprises. Everything is clear to Rogozin regarding the modernisation of the defence industry, however he still has a lot of work to do to understand the space industry — satellites keep falling out of the sky with unflinching regularity.
"Some things are obvious. After the military ended their involvement in the space industry, many things changed for the worse. That is not to say that we should revert to the old ways," Putin sighed.
Putin paid particular attention to the nuclear industry. He said that nuclear energy should assume a 25% share of the country's overall energy needs. Such an increase would mean the amount of power units would need to be of the same magnitude as were built during the entire Soviet period.
"You are an energetic person, and I hope that you will get down to business at once," Putin instructed Rogozin.
Anastasia Novikova
