Government Doesn't Aim at Absolute Control in Defense Establishment

Is the Smerch producer to be nationalized?
Vice-premier of the Russian Government Boris Aleshin said after a meeting held at the Motovilikhinskiye Zavody machine-building complex (Perm) that the government didn't consider the issue of nationalization of defense establishments.

"The government doesn't pursue the objective of nationalization of these enterprises, it aims at supporting them," Boris Aleshin says. According to the vice-premier the meeting was devoted to possible handover of part of shares of Motovilikhinskiye Zavody to the government. According to Boris Aleshin, it is not clear yet on what conditions the share holding can be handed over to the government.

The vice-premier says that the enterprise holds technologies that require support and finance of the government for restoration and successful operation. Boris Aleshin says that this problem must be not only the concern of the government, but also the concern of the enterprise's shareholders.

The vice-premier adds that the government cannot appropriate money from the budget to help with execution of commercial civil orders. "The government should be concerned only with the issues that concern the defensive capacity of the country, the rest is the concern of private business". Boris Aleshin says that the enterprise holds a very important technology that must be preserved and developed. If we fail to do it the government won't be able to execute the state defense order and export contracts that Russia plans to conclude.

Motovilikhinskiye Zavody produces the universally known Smerch volley-firing system and a wide range of artillery weapons. Director General of the enterprise Ivan Kostin says that abut 10 per cent of the state defense order fall on the enterprise now.