The Russian Security Council will make its assessment of the effectiveness of the defense sector, known by its Russian acronym OPK, in August, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday following a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
“We are heading into the home stretch on preparations for an enlarged meeting of the Security Council, at which the effectiveness of the OPK will be assessed, roughly in August,” Rogozin said.
Defense sector enterprises will receive 200 billion-300 billion rubles ($6.25 billion-$9.38 billion) in loans from the four big state banks in 2013-2015 at interest rates no higher than 10%, Rogozin said.
“I can’t discuss the final schedule, but 200 billion-300 billion rubles in the next few years,” Rogozin told journalists, adding that the four banks were VEB, VTB, Gazprombank and Sberbank.
The defense enterprises would receive state subsidies to pay interest on the loans, he said, adding that no final scheme had been decided yet.
Big private banks, even foreign banks, might also be involved in providing defense sector loans, he said.
“If they lend at good interest rates, then ‘welcome,’” he said.
Similarly, the state is prepared to provide financial assistance to all organizations engaged in fulfilling the state defense order, regardless of whether they are owned by the state or not.
“We are not interested in their form of ownership. If they are taking part in the state defense order, we will support these enterprises,” Rogozin said.
He also said Russia has no plans to cut back on defense R&D work due to the global economic crisis.
“There was no consideration of issues connected with dropping any R&D projects, any projects connected with providing defense and security,” he said.
