Russia will spend some 90 billion rubles ($3 billion) on the development of sports over the next three years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
The premier said Russia would spend 39.5 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) on developing sports in 2011, which has been declared the Year of Sports in Russia.
Putin also said he hoped that by 2015 over 42 million of Russians will be engaged in sports activities on a regular basis.
"Currently some 25 million people regularly go to gyms and stadiums in our country," he said. "In line with our plans, this number must exceed 42 million by 2015 and in the longer term we need to reach the levels already achieved by many European countries, where some 70 percent of the population is regularly engaged in sporting activity."
Sports medicine funding will be also significantly increased this year, he said, with 2.5 billion rubles ($83.4 million) allocated for this purpose against last year's 130 million rubles ($4.3 million).
"Each athlete on the Russian national team training for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi must have their own personal medical program," Putin said at a session dedicated to the development of physical culture and sports in Russia until 2020.
Russia is preparing for the 2014 Winter Olympics in its southern resort city of Sochi and aims to redeem itself after its poor performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada's Vancouver.
The Russian national team finished the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with only three gold medals and in 11th place in the overall medals standings.
KHIMKI (Moscow Region), January 17 (RIA Novosti)
