NABEREZHNYE CHELNY (Russia's Tatarstan) (Sputnik) – The Russian government will start financing of modernization of defense industry enterprises on the Crimean Peninsula in 2016, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.
"This year, we will start financing of the modernization of Crimea's defense industry enterprises in line with state program on the development of the defense industry," Putin said at a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission.
Putin stressed that the Crimean defense companies must be given civilian production orders in addition to defense orders.
According to the Military-Industrial Commission, the Crimean defense firms will be given 10 billion rubles (some $127 million) for modernization purposes until 2020.