Tatarstan president: ‘Has anybody gone to the Russian Finance Ministry to get money? It is the Brest Fortress’

Director General of Innovative Engineering Centre Nikolay Kolpakov talked about the use of state support instruments when transferring big orders of oil and gas companies from foreign counties to Russia at a board meeting of Tatneftekhiminvest-holding. So the first stage of the construction of an oil and gas platform to develop a shelf for 76 billion rubles moved to Russia with the help of the centre.

“We have a task — to transfer orders for 5 trillion rubles until 2030 to Russia because the dependence of foreign solutions on the Russian Fuel and Energy Complex is big,” he noted. Foreign products are designed by providing grants. So from 100 to 200 billion rubles are allocated to localise one product.

This mechanism raised doubts among managers of the Tatarstan industrial complex. So head of Alabuga Special Economic Zone Timur Shagivaleyev asked the speaker: “Do you think 46 million of investments are enough to localise imports for 5 trillion rublles?”

In reply, the head of Innovative Engineering Centre explained it was a test mechanism that would expand in the future.

The Tatarstan president recommended not criticising new mechanisms of federal support but joining the work: “I also asked why 100-200 million rubles are allocated for every product, why so little? But let’s start here, let’s start showing a result.”

“Lads, has anybody gone to the Russian Finance Ministry to get money?” he addressed the audience. “It is the Brest Fortress. How much time did it resist the Germans? Three months? While here...” Rustam Minnikhanov gave them to understand how valuable every support instrument was at the moment.

He urged industrial enterprises to actively participate in import substitution projects in partnership with Innovative Engineering Centre.

“Lads, there is a powerful authoritative structure in the country. Not so many regions can participate in this system. There are just ten. The other recipient regions can only ‘process’ money, while we grow money. Technologies, factories, jobs are needed for this. I plead you to join,” Minnikhanov called them upon and complained that “there was even normal machinery” in the country. “They [the West] will supply nothing for us. We wouldn’t be able to do this if sanctions weren’t imposed. Try to compete with global companies, while they aren’t here,” he asked them to move forward.