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Kremlin’s websites costing 20 million rubles, says aide

Peskov said with regard to the spending for websites that the sum of 50 million rubles was the overall budgetary allocation for several purposes

MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Maintenance of the former website of the Russian President and development of the new website has cost the Kremlin some 20 million rubles, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters on Wednesday.

In this way, he refuted some media reports that claimed the Kremlin had ponies up 50 million rubles for the purpose.

Peskov told reporters the Presidential Administration had been compelled to consider refurbishment of the website since the digital technologies and the audiences’ likings in the sphere of design were changing fast - "maybe, somewhat faster than we’d like them to."

He recalled that the previous appearance of the website had been designed about five years ago. "It’s only too obvious that the site of a head of state should meet all the requirements of the times."

Peskov said with regard to the spending for websites that the sum of 50 million rubles was the overall budgetary allocation for several purposes.

"As much as 30 million was earmarked for the website of various commissions, the President’s plenipotentiary representatives and so on," he said. "There’s a multitude of these sites and they have to be developed, designed, and maintained throughout the year and their security should also be ensured."

The latter aspect was highly important for the presidential website, too, as it had to withstand thousands of cyberattacks a year.

"And the 20 million rubles for the presidential website covers the maintenance of the previous site, the development and designing of the new one, the running of the English version, and the version for children," Peskov said.