Shipbuilding was entrusted to the general

Presidential Advisor Alexander Burutin will head the new state holding

President Vladimir Putin yesterday, at a weekly meeting with members of the Cabinet of Ministers, approved the candidacy of the head of the yet uncreated national shipbuilding holding . First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov proposed nominating Presidential Adviser on Military-Industrial Policy Alexander Burutin to this post. “We (together with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov. - Ed. ) have thought through all possible options for personal appointments to this very responsible position of the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation,” Mr. Ivanov reported to Vladimir Putin. - We came to one conclusion, but there’s a problem. We are talking about Alexander Germanovich Burutin. The fact is that he is an employee of your administration, and without your consent, we, of course, cannot officially introduce such a candidacy... If you agree with such a proposal, then the government will prepare the appropriate administrative documents.” “Okay, agreed,” the president replied.

According to the official biography of Alexander Burutin, he was born in 1956 in the city of Tapa, Estonian SSR. Graduated from the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School named after. Supreme Council of the RSFSR, Military Academy named after. M.V. Frunze, Military Academy of the General Staff. He has the military rank of lieutenant general. He served in the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and in the Far Eastern Military District. In 1989-1995, he was a senior officer in the General Staff Department of the Ground Forces, then held various positions in the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Since April 2003 - Advisor to the President of Russia on military-industrial policy.

Although Mr. Burutin’s military career was not directly connected with the navy, Mr. Ivanov recommended him as a person who “knows shipbuilding, has repeatedly visited the leading enterprises in this industry, in particular in Severodvinsk, knows the programs that are ongoing in the unit military-industrial complex." “But the fact is,” continued the First Deputy Prime Minister, “that today all of our shipbuilding is at least 85% military, it just so happens. And such knowledge, it seems to me, will be useful at the initial stage. In addition, it is absolutely clear that in the very near future the main task for the head of such a corporation will be to corporatize federal state unitary enterprises, to account for all assets, that is, to carry out economic activities to combine into a single whole all the state assets that we have in shipbuilding.”

As is known, the formation of a holding company called OJSC United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) is in the very initial stage. Exactly a week ago, at the same meeting with members of the government, Vladimir Putin instructed the head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, Viktor Khristenko, to develop a draft corresponding decree. The USC concept, developed by the Ministry of Industry and Energy, in some basic features repeats the scheme of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), created last year (by the way, Mr. Burutin actively participated in its creation from the Kremlin). However, it is planned to organize the USC much faster than the KLA - literally two to three months after the issuance of the presidential decree. At the same time, a shipbuilding holding will have at least two significant differences from an aircraft manufacturer. Firstly, the USC will unite exclusively state assets; significant participation of private enterprises in the holding is not envisaged in the foreseeable future. And secondly, unlike the export-oriented UAC, USC will meet the needs of the domestic Russian market (with a high share of government orders).

The USC structure is expected to include three regional subsidiaries: Western, Northern and Far Eastern. The Western Shipbuilding Center (St. Petersburg) will specialize in diesel submarines, surface military and civilian vessels. The northern center (Arkhangelsk region), as now, will be busy with the construction of a nuclear submarine fleet, and will also master the production of ships and floating platforms for the development of the sea shelf, and possibly floating nuclear power plants. The Western Center (Vladivostok, Nakhodka) will focus on the repair of the Pacific Fleet, as well as on servicing oil and gas production projects on the local shelf.

Mikhail KUKUSHKIN