*http://www.kommersant.com/p-10966/road_construction/
Road Construction, Agriculture to Enjoy Backup of No Precedent* The extent of support to agriculture and road construction in 2008 will be of no precedent, Russia's Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin announced during the second reading of the federal budget draft in the State Duma. Up to 76 billion rubles will be appropriated from federal budget to support agriculture next year, Kudrin promised, pointing out that the amount will further widen by dozens of billion rubles in 2009 and 2010. In addition to agriculture, road building will also benefit from support of no precedent. The costs for road construction will be annually going up by 70 billon rubles from 2008 to 2009 vs. 2006 to reach 250 billion rubles a year. The president's message to Federal Assembly, Kudrin reminded, provides for the increase of 100 billion rubles in funding of road upgrading, and 20 billion rubles will be appropriated already in 2007 in line with that order of Putin. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
