The defense industry has waited its time

Tomorrow's government meeting will be devoted to the restructuring of the Russian military-industrial complex, otherwise called the reform of the defense industry. Initially, the government's discussion of the future of the defense industry was scheduled for May 5, but the issue was postponed several times. The main reason, as they say in the White House, is significant disagreements that arose between the developer of the program, the Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, and its curator, Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov.

Judging by the fact that on July 13, the program, supplemented by proposals from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, as well as defense agencies, whose interests Mr. Klebanov consistently defends, was reintroduced to the White House, the parties managed to find a compromise. The content of the text of the updated document has not yet been disclosed, however, as the correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper learned, one of the main innovations has disappeared from it, namely: the creation of 36 technological holdings for each type of weapon.

A source from the Vremya Novostei newspaper claims that the creation of military-industrial corporations will, of course, be provided for in the program, but taking into account the fact that some defense industry enterprises are no longer state property. As for the goals of the program itself, Ilya Klebanov outlined them at the beginning of spring: to ensure that “the Russian defense industry is able to provide the national armed forces with modern equipment,” as well as “to improve export capabilities.”

Changes for the better are expected in the defense industry. In particular, the general director of the industrial holding company NPK, Boris Kuzyk, told a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper that the adoption of the program is fundamentally important not only for the defense industry, but also for the country’s economy as a whole. Mr. Kuzyk hopes that when deciding on the fate of the defense industry, “not revolutionary administrative approaches and formalism, but balance, wisdom, taking into account the mistakes of the past and necessarily focusing on the needs of the domestic and foreign markets” will prevail.

Olga ANTONOVA