Dmitriy Rogozin: it needs to allocate more than 200 milliard rubles for arctic programs

The first sitting of the state commission on issues of development of the Arctic took place in Moscow. It was conducted by the chairperson of the commission, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Rogozin.

Among the participants of the sitting there were plenipotentiaries of the President of the Russian Federation, heads of federal bodies of the power, heads of arctic regions, representatives of the Security Council, the administration of the head of the state, scientific and public organizations. As Dmitriy Rogozin noted in the beginning of the sitting, its main task was to evaluate the scale of the forthcoming work, to define priorities and immediately to start exploration and development of this richest part of the country. Deputy Prime Minister remembered Russian history of exploration of the Arctic and noted that Mikhail Lomonosov had elaborated the first project of the polar expedition. Having called the attitude to the Northern territories as to exclusively raw material regions definitely incorrect, Dmitriy Rogozin defined the Arctic as the region of geostrategic interests of Russia. As he says, the Arctic is becoming new environment of formation of the world politics. More than 80 percent of gas of Russia, more than 90 percent of nickel and cobalt, majority of other natural resources are extracted here. More than 15 percent of the gross domestic product and more than one fourth of export of the country are formed here. At that, the bigger part of the Arctic has not been explored yet. It is impossible to move further without coordinated actions. Exactly therefore the President took the decision to create the commission, as the chairperson underlines. As he informs, it needs to allocate 222 milliard rubles for arctic programs within the coming 5 years. At that, a bigger part should be allocated at the expenses of the federal budget. The heads of different ministries presented their reports. The participants of the sitting scrutinized issues of creation of working groups, the expert and business councils and also the presidium. Besides, they established the plan of work of the state commission for this year, as the press-service of the governor of Yamal informs.