NEWSLINK: “Little cash for Russia’s new Arctic development program; Ambitions are sky-high, but much hinges on private investments” – The Independent Barents Observer/ Atle Staalesen

“… The new Russian Arctic program has undergone major revision since the Ministry of Economic Development was commissioned to make a draft. The Ministry first proposed to allocated 209 billion rubles (€3.1 billion) of state cash to program implementation. Later, the sum was reduced to only 12 billion rubles (€177 million). Originally, the program was to cover the period until year 2020, but in its last version the government decided to extend its scope to 2025. In the program’s last phase, the period 2021-2025, the plan is to spend up to 150 billion rubles on program activities. This money, however, will first of all come from private sources. In addition, the sum includes money from the Ministry of Defense, Medvedev made clear in the meeting. …”