KALININGRAD. Nov 1 (Interfax-AVN) - The Yantar shipyard will continue building the Novik multifunctional guard ship for the Russian Navy, President Vladimir Putin's deputy envoy to the North-western federal district Andrei Stepanov said on Thursday.
Stepanov made the statement at a news conference held jointly with Baltic Fleet commander Vice Admiral Vladimir Valuyev at the end of the deputy envoy's visit to the Baltiysk naval base. During the visit Stepanov studied the base's installations and peculiarities of basing vessels and units there.
The deputy envoy refuted the statement of the Kaliningrad region governor claiming that the Navy was about to suspend the Novik's construction. "The state is still financing it, and the money is coming," Stepanov said.
There have been no decisions on the fate of the vessel, except for Navy Commander Vladimir Kuroyedov's verbal order to transfer the Novik's construction from Yantar to the Severnaya Verf enterprise in St. Petersburg, the deputy envoy said. "The president's envoy to the North-western federal district Viktor Cherkesov met Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Thursday and they discussed, among other issues, the fate of the Novik," he said.
The Novik was laid down by Yantar in July 1997. The Navy considers it a 21st century vessel. It is to have the length of over 100m, displace about 3,000t, be powered by both gas-turbine and diesel engines and carry helicopters of all modification. It is to be commissioned in 2001, but the construction is unlikely to end on time due to various reasons, primarily poor funding. The construction costs are estimated at RUB8bn (USD3.84bn).