MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. Optimization of budgetary spending has not impacted the basic parameters of the state defense order and armament programs, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a working meeting with Defense and Finance Ministers, Sergey Shoigu and Anton Siluanov, respectively.
"I know that the government has finished a great deal of work to optimize budgetary spending. No secret that one of the most considerable items of expenditure is spending on the defense sector, security and law enforcement agencies," Putin said.
"In this connection, I would like to thank you for the fact that despite the optimization, you have managed to preserve key parameters of the state defense order and armaments programs, which is extremely important in terms of the planned overhaul of the army and the navy, so that maintenance spending on the one hand and spending on new hardware on the other hand were in line with the preset parameters and we could achieve planned structural changes in what concerns renovation of arms and military hardware as scheduled," the president underscored.