Russia will increase spending under the State Defense Order by 600-700 billion rubles this year, First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Russian Military Industrial Commission (MIC) Andrei Yelchaninov said in an interview with Interfax.

“We forecast that the State Defense Order this year will grow by a guaranteed 600-700 billion rubles,” Yelchaninov said.

He said the government was working on the financial stability of defense industry enterprises.

“Against the background of the key rate reduction, we have achieved that the defense industry enterprises were able to attract credit funds at 6.5% in the backbone bank of the “defense industry” – Promsvyazbank. We consider such interest adequate, workable and acceptable for enterprises,” Yelchaninov said

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. On February 24, Putin announced the start of a special military operation in Ukraine.

In response, many countries imposed large-scale sanctions against Russia. A number of countries are supplying Ukraine with weapons and equipment.

Yelchaninov also said that the Russian Federation will not slow down the execution of contracts for the supply of weapons and military equipment to foreign customers, only in certain cases the order of production may be revised.

“Refusal to supply products to foreign customers is not discussed at all. Military-technical cooperation of the Russian Federation now goes exclusively with friendly countries, any changes in the quantity of products supplied to our friends is a subject of mutual respect of interests,” Yelchaninov said.

“We are not talking about abandoning obligations to foreign partners in favor of the RF Armed Forces, this is a subject of compromise, negotiations. In individual cases, the adoption of such decisions is possible, but not en masse,” he said.

On May 20, the head of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, said that the Russian Federation is fulfilling its obligations to supply military equipment under sanctions, while solving logistical problems and looking for ways of mutual settlements in national currencies.