http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090216/120167623.html
*No cuts to Russian defense contracts planned for 2009* *MOSCOW*, February 16 (RIA Novosti) - *State defense contracts* will not be subject to cuts this year despite the ongoing financial crisis, *Russia's deputy defense minister* said on Monday. "State arms and materiel orders will be fulfilled in the volumes planned in the budget," said *Lyubov Kudelina*. Kudelina said the Defense Ministry would transfer 65 billion rubles ($1.9 billion), to producers by the end of this week. She also said the ministry would transfer 35% of military contract payments in the first quarter of 2009. The government is to disburse a total of 1.3 trillion rubles ($37 billion) to defense contractors this year. The state arms production budget for 2009-11 has been approved at 4 trillion rubles ($115 billion). Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia's major aircraft maker, MiG Corp., would receive 11 billion rubles ($308 million) in the first quarter of the year as part of a 17.3 billion-ruble ($485 million) state defense contract. He also said the company had losses of some 11 billion rubles in 2008, and announced that he had signed a resolution allocating a further 15 billion rubles ($417 million) in federal budget funds to the corporation. Last year, MiG, along with other "strategic" companies, was promised funding through the government's anti-crisis package, specifically firm production orders from the Russian Air Force. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
