MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The federal special program of army transition to volunteer manning will be worth RUB7.8bn (USD274m) in 2004, Deputy Defense Minister Lyubov Kudelina said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda daily, published on Wednesday.
"All in all, the 2004-2007 federal special program of army transition to volunteer manning will be worth RUB7.8bn in the current year. Most of the money will be spent on capital construction and repairs of social infrastructure. Personnel issues will be worth about RUB1.5bn (USD52.7m)," she said.
According to her, in 2004 there will be more money for national defense by 16 percent, or RUB56.6bn (USD2bn), which, with due account for the inflation forecast, will make a real growth of about nine percent.
"Year on year, in 2004 more money by almost 15 percent will be allocated for logistics support, and by 17 percent more for procurement and MRO of military hardware and for R&D," Kudelina said.