MOSCOW, August 7 (RIA Novosti) — An import substitution program for Russian space companies will be ready by the end of 2014, the head of the United Rocket and Space Corporation said Thursday.
Igor Komarov told a news conference in Moscow that the Western sanctions "have certainly affected Russia’s space industry, prompting serious efforts" to find domestic substitutions for banned foreign products, "especially electronic components."
"By the end of the year, the [import substitution] program with all sources of financing will be drafted," Komarov said.
On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Russia had to expand production of military spacecraft and develop the strategy of import substitution in the domestic production of spacecraft for greater technological independence.
He said Russia needed high-tech spacecraft, which "will provide consumers in all regions of Russia with all types of communication, navigation, geodesy and cartography."
The substitution program is Russia's protective economic countermeasure in response to the recent Western sanctions, but is not devised to hurt Russia’s Western partners, Rogozin said.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order on economic measures to protect the country’s security. The decree banned for a year imports of agricultural and food products from several countries that have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.
The United States and European Union have been imposing targeted sanctions against a number of Russian officials and companies since Crimea's reunification with Russia in March, accusing Moscow of meddling with Ukraine’s internal affairs.
Russia's "blacklist" is composed mostly of food imports from Australia, Canada, the European Union, the United States and Norway.
