According to Oleg Belozerov, 333 billion rubles were allocated for road building and maintenance in 2000, whereas in 2005 authorities earmarked only 111 billion rubles ($1 = 27.46 rubles) for the purpose.
"If the volume of funding is not radically raised now, the share of roads meeting contemporary standards will drop from the current 24% to 5% in 2010," Mr. Belozerov said.
Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Speaker Sergei Mironov attending the conference pointed out that the road funding policy must target specific projects and suggested that constant sources of funding be assigned to finance the country's road building and maintenance sector.
The Federation Council speaker referred to a percentage of the oil and gas windfall sales revenue, proceeds from the third party car insurance, and a portion of foreign car import duties as potential sources of funding for Russian road facilities.
The overall length of Russian motor roads totals 599,000 kilometers, with 47,000 kilometers being federally owned. 82% of those, according to Sergei Mironov, need repair. Russian regions own 552,000 kilometers of motor roads, with only 20% of those meeting established standards.
