Point of View

“I would like to emphasize that infrastructure development must be accompanied by serious investments in safety. It is essential that we guarantee a new level of anti-terrorism security, fire safety and technical monitoring of the tracks and rolling stock. Under the plan, 4.5 billion roubles will be invested to enhance railway safety in 2010.”

“It is necessary to increase the capacity of our railways in Baltic and Pacific ports considerably. They should operate as effective logistical hubs. We're talking about the reconstruction of the Mga-Gatchina-Ivangorod line and the railway providing access to the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. We're also talking about and the Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskay Gavan line, which will help develop the ports of Vanino, Sovetskaya Gavan and some other areas.”

“In 2009, the cost of freight carriage was supposed to increase by almost 16%, 15.9%to be exact, but in reality it did not increase by more than 10.6%. This took a burden off the real economy during a difficult crisis year by cutting transport expenses. We will continue to keep tariff increases under control this year.”

“Our priorities here? First, we must concentrate on the development of high-speed passenger rail along the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod line and the railway from St Petersburg to the Finnish border. The Moscow-St Petersburg line showed that high-speed rail is in much demand. Second, we must continue building a railway to connect Yakutsk with the general railway network.”

“A large number of important documents outlining the future of the industry were adopted in 2008, primarily the Strategy for Developing Russia's Railway Transport up to 2030 and the targeted federal programme for developing Russia's transport network through 2015. <…>I would like to start by saying that these plans remain in place despite the economic difficulties we and the rest of the world are experiencing.”

“It was so important for us not to scale back our construction projects or waste the experience acquired while implementing major projects during the downturn in 2009. Government support to Russian Railways in 2009 amounted to a handsome 130 billion roubles. Reimbursement for lower freight tariffs added up to 40.5 billion roubles; 38.4 billion roubles went in subsidies for discounted long-distance travel by students; 41.5 billion roubles for infrastructure construction in Sochi, six billion roubles to build a detour around the man-made disaster area in Beryozniki, and three billion roubles to purchase railway carriages from the Tver rail car plant. In addition, Russian Railways saved almost 900 million roubles - 890 million roubles, to be exact - on import duties for Sapsan high-speed trains.”

“The Russian Railways investment programme for 2010 amounts to 270.5 billion roubles. The amount of support from the federal budget will even be increased slightly, to 140 billion roubles. In other words, the government is again taking on more than half of all expenses for modernisation and new construction projects. The government will allocate 50 billion roubles to compensate Russian Railways for the indexation of lower freight tariffs, 27.8 billion roubles to partially subsidise long-distance economy-class travel and 60 billion roubles for the construction of transport infrastructure in Sochi.”

“The processes of building additional generating facilities, development of distribution grids and shaping an energy market are closely interrelated. If energy deficit persists and getting connected to power grids remains a problem, what we are likely to get in the end is a "quasi-market" controlled by monopolies, while the interests of consumers, the economy, and the country are simply ignored. We must certainly prevent this situation and we are determined to do so. Our mission is to create the most favourable environment for growth.”

“Under the project, the plant's 10 hydropower units are to be replaced with new ones of the same capacity but with improved characteristics. They are to be produced by Power Machines under a contract estimated at 11.7 billion roubles. Six power units are to be supplied in 2011 and the remaining four in 2012. On the whole, investment in the reconstruction and modernisation of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant will reach some 37 billion roubles.”

“Active construction of power units, modernisation of power plants and decommissioning of expensive, resource-wasting and inefficient facilities. During the reform of RAO UES, the new owners made serious commitments to invest in the development of the Russian power industry. A part of these commitments was financed by the issue of additional shares. They attracted approximately 450 billion roubles. <…>According to the latest data, however, only 270 billion roubles of the above sum were spent directly on the implementation of investment projects, and 66 billion roubles were spent on current operation of the company, including the purchase of non-core assets that are not connected to the power industry. <…>Let me tell you this straight away, for you not to take offence later: Penal sanctions will be used against those who "consume" the resources earmarked for investment or, worse still, pull these resources out of the business.”