"The so-called import substitution brings results. As regards production, our import decreased by 10 percentage points. It used to be at the level of some 49 percentage points, an now it's 39 percentage points. We've made very serious steps on import substitution in a number of industries: pharmaceutical, chemical, light industry, and I'm not talking about the heavy engineering. The road equipment is almost 100 percent Russian. Some major changes have happened there. I'm not talking about defense. Serious internal structural changes, especially in this field is something extremely important to achieve technological independence," Putin said during the annual press conference.
"I have no doubt that we will achieve the desired result," he added.
