The talks between the two parts have long been deadlocked, with Defence Minister Serdyukov demanding a far lower price for the five Borey-class vessels than what has been acceptable to the United Shipbuilding Corporation. According to Gazeta.ru the price gap between the parts has been as big as 35 percent.
As previously reported, the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk, which is responsible for the construction of the new submarines, has argued that it can not produce the vessels for the price offered by the ministry. A representative of the United Shipbuilding Corporation last year said that both the Sevmash yard and the Zvezdochka yards, as well as the Admiralty yard in Sankt Petersburg, were on the verge of collapse following insufficient funding from the defence authorities.
Now, the parts have struck a compromise. According to RIA Novosti, the price of the contract is 130 billion RUB, or 26 billion RUB per sub. However, the details of the contract remain unclear and some analysts believe that the deal will be far more expensive. The shipyards have themselves argued that 130 billion RUB will be insufficient, Gazeta.ru reports.
According to analyst Sergey Konovalov, Defence Minister Serdyukov has been under major pressure from Deputy Premier Dmitry Rogozin, as well as Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and Head of the Shipbuilding Corporation Roman Trotsenko to conclude the deal. The new agreement will give 20,000 workers at the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk stable jobs until year 2020, he writes in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
The deal was announced after a meeting in the Kremlin between President Vladimir Putin and all involved parts last Friday.
Meanwhile, the Russian Finance Ministry now warns against a “militarization” of the country’s national budget. The ministry proposes to cut spending both on the military and the police in order to be able to meet other obligations, Newsru.com reports. Also Sergey Konovalov maintains that the booming defence budget will have to be covered either by reduced social spending or by higher taxes.
Both measures will be met with dissatisfaction in society, he concludes.
