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Russian shipbuilders move away from the world

Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin is confident that Russia will be able to construct all the vessels and marine technology it needs.

No more more Russian ships will be built abroad, Deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin says, adding that a wave of new orders now will be placed in Russian yards.

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Rogozin, the deputy prime minister in charge of Russia’s military-industrial complex, confirms that a major plan for the development of the Russian shipbuilding industry is to be presented by March 2015. The plan will include a list of construction orders for Russian yards until year 2025, Tass.ru reports.

The decision is a response to the sanctions imposed by the EU and USA.

”We have to handle this, it is a challenge which has been issued, and we will pick up that gauntlet and respond the following way: with our own work and with the stimulation of industrial growth”, Rogozin said at a session in the Marine Collegium this week.

According to the deputy PM, weekly government meetings will address coordination issues between the shipbuilding industry and the Ministry of Economic Development. Also the Marine Collegium, a government coordinating body for maritime issues, will play a key role in the process, he said.

”We have ended the discussion about where to build the necessary ships and marine equipment. The answer is clear: exclusively on the territory of our own country, by developing new yards, creating new competences, acquiring new scientific and technical capacity”, Rogozin said, adding that both military and civilian technology will be included in the new regulation.

Also technology for offshore oil exploration and production, a sector strongly hit by the western sanction regime, will be included in the shipbuilding nationalization plan.

Rogozin argues that the country’s yards will step up construction of civilian vessels as military orders are completed. However, he does not outline any clear plan for how how to overcome the major technological gap, as well as lack of capacity, among Russian shipbuilders.

Dmitry Rogozin’s speech to the Marine Collegium comes only few days after President Putin’s adress to the federal assembly last week. In that speech, he announced the establisment of a special coordination center for the implementation of major industrial projects and placing of construction orders in Russian companies.