Foreign donors' assistance in Russian nuclear submarine utilisation

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov believes that assistance of foreign donor nations in utilising Russian nuclear submarines is quite relevant.

"Recently the State Duma has ratified an important agreement on nuclear and ecological security, according to which utilisation should involve means of foreign donors," Kasyanov said when opening a regular government session.

"Russia pays due attention to the problem, but assistance of foreign states is quite relevant," he pointed out.

According to him, Russia has to utilise about 200 nuclear submarines. At the same time, annually it can utilise only 10-12 submarines. "In the last Soviet and the initial Russian periods the country did not have enough funds to solve the problem, such opportunities have appeared only recently," Kasyanov said.

The problem of utilising submarines and nuclear ship reactors was a negative heritage the Russian Federation received from the Soviet Union along with such problems as foreign debts and chemical weapons, the Prime Minister added.