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Russia to start working on 2016-2025 armament program when economy stabilizes — source

Neither the Economic Development Ministry nor the Finance Ministry has a clear social and economic forecast at the moment

MOSCOW, August 31. /TASS/. The Russian government will start working on the state armament program for 2016-2025 only after the economic situation is stable, an informed source with the government told reporters on Monday.

"Any program must be based on a clear social and economic forecast and neither the Economic Development Ministry nor the Finance Ministry has such a forecast now. Eventually, we decided that as for the current armament program until 2020 we will work under the indicators that were agreed earlier. The work on prospective SAP for 2016-2025 will be launched no earlier than the economic situation stabilizes and the there is a clear forecast of the future socio-economic development," the source said.

Initially, the government announced that its spending on the state armaments program until 2025 would amount to 55 trillion rubles ($823 bln). Later the amount was reduced to 30 trillion rubles ($449 bln) to maintain the required volumes of equipment.

The cost of the state armament program until 2020 is about 20 trillion rubles ($299 bln). Among the main priorities of the current government program are strategic nuclear forces, aerospace forces and reconnaissance, communication means.