MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Russia is sitting on vast rare earth metal reserves, but lacks the capacity to process them on its own, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu told TASS in an interview.
"Recently, rare earth metals needed for the production of electronic products, including military ones, have come to the fore. Russia is one of the world leaders in rare earth metal reserves, located, in particular, in the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk Regions, and in [the republic of] Tuva. However, we do not have production facilities that would allow us to manufacture finished products. We export $7.2-7.6 billion worth of these metals annually, and we import $75 billion worth of these same metals. This is approximately 4% of GDP," Shoigu noted.
The Secretary of the Security Council also drew attention to the fact that Siberia's significant hydroelectric resources create conditions for generating cheap energy and developing industries "from raw material extraction to the production of high-tech products, including such industries as electronics, electrical engineering, oil and gas chemistry, and timber."
"The construction of new hydroelectric power plants will provide inexpensive electricity for the computing power needed to create domestic super-strong artificial intelligence," he said.
Shoigu underscored the importance of creating backup production facilities, given the threats that emerged during the special military operation.
"Given the military and terrorist threats to critical industrial, energy, transport, scientific, information, and management infrastructure facilities located in the European part of the country that emerged during the special military operation, we need to think about creating backup production facilities and other facilities in Siberian regions that are safely removed from threats from both the east and the west," the Secretary of the Security Council said.
He recalled that the Russian President had set the tasks of connecting the infrastructure of the Northern Sea Route with the internal railway network, developing the internal waterways of the great rivers (Lena, Yenisei, Ob).
"The solution of these tasks will relieve the Trans-Siberian Railway and at the same time increase the efficiency of sea transportation. However, without the development of an industrial base, transport infrastructure, shipbuilding in Siberia, these routes may not work or turn out to be economically unfeasible," Shoigu went on.
"We need to work consistently to achieve the long-term goals of the Russian Federation. The complex problems that arise in this regard must be solved within the framework of a unified system of strategic planning, agreed upon in the field of socio-economic development and ensuring national security," Shoigu said.