ST.PETERSBURG, April 28. /TASS/. The Russian government will spend 36 bln rubles ($689 mln) on supporting mass media this year, President Vladimir Putin said speaking at a media forum of the All-Russia People’s Front on Tuesday.
This is the same level of support, which was granted in 2014, he said.
"The funds that were envisaged for supporting media last year, I think, for the whole country, amounted to about 36 billion rubles, which is a big sum of money," he said.
"As far as I know, this year the amount which is allocated to support media should be on the level of last year. So all in all it is a solid amount," - he said.
At the same time, Putin said that the funds allocated on covering the activities of regional administrations, should be cut by 20%.
Putin said that spending money on supporting media should be transparent for the population.
"It should be clear how the money is spent. This information should be as transparent as possible and in this case it they won’t be able to simply feed their "pocket" media. The pike is there in the pond for the crucian carp not to sleep" the president said using a famous Russian saying.