MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and Chairman of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev praises import substitution in Russian defense industry.
"The Russian defense industry demonstrated excellent import substitution capabilities. Essentially, for a number of industrial products, we had to completely restore the entire production chain, the entire product line, and we manufacture all components ourselves," he said at the First sectoral regional Forum of the United Russia party called "There is a result!", which is underway in Yekaterinburg.
Medvedev noted that this often happens because there is no other choice.
"That's what happened, for example, with aircraft manufacturing. But why were we forced to do this [import substitution]? Simply because our supply routes for certain components from other countries were cut off. And we did it. In fact, we are now a self-sufficient country in a number of areas," he concluded.
Medvedev also called Russia's defense industry a source of breakthrough innovations and promising technical solutions.
"Today, the defense industry is—as before, of course, but this is especially noticeable today—a source of breakthrough innovations and promising technical solutions. At the end of the year, it is showing growth of more than 20%," he noted.