MOSCOW. July 22 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is going to assign 800 million rubles for peacekeeping from its next year's budget, Chairman of the Federation Council's Defense and Security committee Viktor Ozerov told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.
"This is by 300 million more than this year," he said, noting that Russia's involvement into UN, EU and CSTO led peacekeeping activities is going to expand.
"The committee conducted a joint survey with Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry's specialists this March to learn that we have the 45th position among UN member-states in terms of peacekeepers involved in real operations. We recommended that the government and other bodies concerned should intensify efforts in this domain with the account of interests Russia has there. The gap is being bridged now. Its is common knowledge that Russia will dispatch a helicopter force to Chad as part of the EU peacekeeping operation deployed there. The group will have four helicopters and about 100 flight and technical personnel," he said, adding that peacekeeping activities do not only help the military to obtain requisite expertise of real operations, but also allow them to earn money.
"For instance, Russia's involvement in the peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone earned us $34 million, while the participation in the Sudan operation, where over 100 Russian heli-men are still deployed, brought the budget another $13 million. The UN pays donating nations a compensation for their involvement in these operations," he said.
He also emphasized that the intensification of Russia's participation in peacekeeping activities under the UN and EU aegis is a good tool to forge Russia's international recognition and earn it a reputation of a powerful state.
According to the Defense Ministry, currently over 200 its soldiers are involved in peacekeeping operations led by the UNO.