http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D94CRGRO0.htmOfficial: Russian defense hit by lending crisis
A senior Russian Cabinet official said Tuesday the country's defense industries have been crippled by the financial crisis and called on state banks to provide more funding.
The comments by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov come as the Kremlin pushes a 25 percent increase in defense spending next year, earmarking billions of dollars on new weaponry for the country's aging armed forces.
Many Russian defense plants have suffered a dire cash shortage, making it difficult for them to fulfill government orders for new weapons, Ivanov said in televised remarks.
"The current global financial problems have badly affected some defense industry plants," Ivanov, who is in charge of military industries, told a government meeting. "The situation could become quite painful for the industry."
Ivanov blamed bankers for trying to profit from the industries' desperate situation by raising interest rates. He said the government should order state-controlled banks to give loans to defense plants.
The global financial crisis has made many Russian banks reluctant to lend money to industries, and the government has injected billions of dollars into the banking system to try to unfreeze the credit situation.
Even before the crisis, the Russian defense industries have suffered from years of brain drain and the loss of key technologies resulting from post-Soviet economic meltdown.
Industry experts warned that aging industrial equipment, the shortage of qualified personnel, and the lack of components could jeopardize the Kremlin's ambitious military modernization tasks.
Experts say the degradation of Russian weapons industries may also undermine the government's hopes to expand arms sales to global markets.
