OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2009. Russian authorities promised to support the military industrial complex with cheap loans to be provided by the country’s biggest lenders, and also with state guarantees and advance payments, requesting in exchange cost cuts, said a press release posted on the government’s website. Last week Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said at a closed session of the State Duma that when revising the 2009 budget the Cabinet is to cut defense spending by 15%, but will set no limits on military hardware purchased via state orders.

On Monday Russian PM Vladimir Putin confirmed that the domestic defense industry will have production orders for several years ahead. He also promised representatives of the industry what only the select few could count on, i.e. “rhythmical financing” on the part of the country’s largest state-owned banks (Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank) that are expected to benefit from multi-billion-dollar cash injections into their capitals in order to boost lending. The day before Putin signed off on an order to provide state guarantees in 2009 under loan facilities issued to strategic military industrial concerns to conduct operations and make capital investments.