VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
The capital of the Republic of Udmurtia, Izhevsk, was founded in 1760 by Count Pyotr Shuvalov who built an iron works on the land of the Kazan Murza (nobleman) Tevkelev and a factory village nearby.
Today Izhevsk is the 19th most populous city in Russia (611,000, or about 40% of the republic's population). The city has an area of 31,560 hectares.
Izhevsk is in second place among the regional centres in the Volga Federal District in terms of birthrate per thousand. In 2009 Izhevsk registered a natural population increase (by 803 persons) for the first time since 1992.
The city has more than 2,500 industrial enterprises, the largest being the Izhevsk Engineering Plant, Izhstal, the Izhevsk Mechanical Works, the Izhevsk Motor Plant Aksion-Holding, the Izhevsk Kupol Electromechanical Plant and the Izhevsk Plastics Factory.
The main products are steel, medical equipment, plastic goods, machine-tools and defense industry products. Various radio-electronic military equipment is developed and produced: it includes equipment for air defense systems, flight and ground radio systems, telecommunications systems, sporting, hunting and combat weapons, etc.
In terms of average monthly pay at large and medium-sized enterprises, Izhevsk is in sixth place among the Volga Federal District cities. Monthly salaries increased by 4.9%, to 15,975.7 roubles, in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period of 2009.
More than 30% of the gainfully employed population in Izhevsk work in industry. Before the financial crisis the official unemployment figure in the city was less than 1%, while the number of job vacancies was 1.5 times higher than the number of unemployed. At present unemployment stands at 2.63%.
Since 2006 Izhevsk has been implementing a municipal programme called Housing. Over the past five years, the city built 975,000 sq m of housing and repaired 219 blocks of flats. As a result, more than 52,000 citizens improved their housing conditions. In 2010 about 657 million roubles will be spent to repair 237 blocks of flats.
The development of the social sphere is treated as a priority. In 2007-2009, 2,602 new places became available at the city's kindergartens which reduced the waiting list for kindergartens by half. At present 77% of the demand for places in childcare centres is met, which is a much higher level than Russia's average. In the period between 2010 and 2014, 2,535 places in municipal preschool childcare centres of Izhevsk are to be made available.
Izhevsk regularly hosts various international music festivals and an annual Chaikovsky competition. The city is involved in international humanitarian projects. In 2008 the Council of Europe chose Izhevsk as a participant in a major pilot project called "Intercultural Cities" out of 70 Russian contenders.
