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Russia’s federal budget to spend $2.2 billion on Crimea’s modernization in 2015

YALTA, April 18. /TASS/. A total of 113 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) will be spent this year to upgrade infrastructure as part of the Russian federal target program on development of Crimea and Sevastopol, Russian Deputy Crimean Affairs Minister Andrey Sokolov said at the Yalta economic forum on Saturday.

"This is a huge sum comparable with expenses on the Olympic Games in Sochi, and more than the funds spent to prepare Vladivostok for the APEC summit. The sums will grow in the future. About 700 billion rubles [$13.6 billion] will be invested in Crimea by 2020," Sokolov said.

He said federal budget funds will be injected in the development of the resort industry and production sphere.

"We will conduct complete modernization of some resort cities and will create five industrial parks," Sokolov said.

The Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol reunified with Russia after a referendum held on March 16, 2014, in which 96.77% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals March 18, 2014.

Work to integrate the Crimean Peninsula into Russia’s economic, financial, credit, legal, state power, military conscription and infrastructure systems has been actively underway since Crimea acceded to the Russian Federation.

The Yalta International Economic Forum, organized by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea and the Business Russia public organization, opened Friday near the city of Yalta. Co-chairman of Business Russia Andrey Nazarov said some 450 participants attend the forum, including 30 investors and entrepreneurs from 13 countries.

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