A total of 44.5 billion rubles is needed in order to raise pensions and state salaries paid in Crimea to the Russian level and overall spending on various programs will not exceed 100 billion rubles, President Vladimir Putin said during his televised hotline on April 17.
“We must invest funds in raising the incomes of pensioners and
employees whose salaries are paid from the budget, to develop the
economy, agriculture. What are those funds? Our overall Pension Fund
spending is about 6 trillion rubles, of which 4.5 trillion rubles is
payments to pensioners. How much will we have to allocate this year to
support pensioners in Crimea? Twenty-eight billion rubles. At first
glance, that is no small amount. But out of 4.5 trillion rubles, it’s
not that much,” he said.
Support for budget employees will total 16.5 billion rubles, which is no more than a kind of “moving allowance,” he said.
“Spending on subsidies for all Crimea programs will not exceed 100
billion rubles,” he said, although that sum does not include the cost of
building a bridge or a tunnel across the Kerch Strait.
Russia will not have to curtail its own social programs to finance
that spending, he said. “We will not have to take any money from other
programs. We have set aside additional money as a government reserve:
240 billion rubles for this year,” he said.
