Russia to spend four trillion rubles on navy upgrade: Putin

MOSCOW, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Navy will receive some four trillion rubles (130 billion U.S. dollars) for its modernization bid before 2020, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

During a video conference with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in the northwest port city of Severomorsk, Putin said that " modernization of the Navy is a major priority" of the government in its efforts to strengthen the armed forces.

"The state armament program for the period until 2020 assigns more than 4 trillion rubles for the formation of balanced groups of warships and submarines," he noted.

The president made the statement as the country's first Borei- class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, Yuri Dolgoruky, entered into service at the northern Severodvinsk naval base.

In addition to eight Borei-class strategic submarines, the Russian Navy will also receive eight Yasen-class multirole nuclear submarines before 2020, the Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying.

"We will also build multirole diesel submarines," the president added.

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