Russia to conclude procurement contracts in advance
Russia plans to sign next year’s contracts on state defense procurement will already in December in order to avoid disagreemenst between authorities and industry.
- Next year we have to create conditions for a 100 percent fulfillment of the state defense orders, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said according to RIA Novosti. - We will sign all contracts in December so that we can start to execute them from the beginning of the year.
Russia plans to spend 880 billion rubles (app €20 billion) on new weaponry and R&D in 2012, RIA Novosti writes. This is 130 billion more than in 2011.
2011 has been marked by a long-going fight between the Defense Ministry and the military industrial complex, first of all the ship-building industry. The giant United Shipbuilding Corporation, which includes Sevmash and Zvezdochka shipyards in Severodvinsk, could not come to terms with the ministry over the bills for construction of Russia’s new Yasen and Borey class submarines as well as other contracts. The two parties agreed on the prices as late as in November, and contracts were signed one week later, when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Severodvinsk.
