"The state and the national economy suffer serious losses, worth up to 6% of GDP annually, because of bad roads," Putin said.
Putin said the network of Russian highways is one of the world's longest, with 77% of cargo and 60% of passenger transportation accounted for by motor vehicles. "The amount of international motor transportation is also significantly rising," he said.
At the same time, the Russian leader said, Russia's roads are still far behind other countries'. "Nearly a third of federal highways are overloaded, and only 20% of regional highways correspond to technical norms," he said.
The president said the lack of roads puts a heavy burden on rural areas.
"The negative experience of many countries has showed that economic growth can be planned, much can be done to support it, but it very quickly becomes reliant on infrastructural limitations - the lack of normal roads, low throughput capacity of bridges and ports - if you don't think about these things in due time," Putin said.
