CHELYABINSK, February 16. /TASS/. Russia hoped that by selling oil and gas, coal and raw metal it would be able to use the proceeds to buy technologies abroad, but it turned out that it could produce them itself, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with workers of a plant at the Stankomash industrial park.
"We were counting on the fact that by selling oil and gas, coal and metal, we would receive everything high-tech for this money somewhere abroad. But opportunity knocked. There was a need - it turned out that there was also an opportunity to produce everything ourselves. Not everything, but what is needed. Develop our own technological keys. This is what we are going to do," the head of state said.
When asked whether there are special programs in the country for training specialists in robotics, Putin said yes.
"We have a program called the production of means of production. This is something that we should have paid attention to a long ago," the president said. He added that this is not the only program and the authorities will work on expanding such programs.