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The meeting was attended by chief executives of the Special Technology Centre, Urals Civil Aviation Plant, KAMAZ Plant, Russian Helicopters, Military Industrial Company, Perspektiva, Tekhnodinamika, Almaz-Antey Concern, Tactical Missiles Corporation, Uralvagonzavod Research and Production Corporation, NPO High Precision Systems, Kronstadt, heads of United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, United Aircraft Corporation, and Rostec State Corporation to promote the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov, Tula Region Governor Alexei Dyumin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexei Krivoruchko, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Kirill Lysogorsky, and First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Military Industrial Commission Vasily Tonkoshkurov.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues,

This meeting is taking place in Tula, the legendary city of gunmakers. Chief executives of enterprises from across Russia, from the Far East, Siberia, and the Urals, all the way to European Russia, have gathered here.

The Governor and I have just toured the Instrument Design Bureau that is engaged in the development of high-precision and other weapons, including armoured vehicles. We will now discuss the issues of concern that we have been dealing with closely over the past several months.

The main, key goal for defence industry enterprises is to provide our units, our advanced force, with everything they need – weapons, equipment, ammunition and gear. And, they must have the amount and numbers they need with the proper quality in a short amount of time. In addition, we must improve and substantially upgrade the performance of weapons and equipment with due account for the combat experience we have gained.

Today, I expect you to report on these things after our previous meetings. We met separately and then together, as you know. I would like to hear your proposals on resolving the problems – they are bound to exist in such extensive, large-scale work. I would also ask you to offer proposals on how we can move forward and what we will be doing to reduce the number of problems as much as possible.

A separate, crucial issue is feedback for defence industry enterprises from units engaged in the special military operation. I know, I talked about this recently – probably yesterday – that your specialists, engineers from many plants, are going right to the frontlines to quickly repair damaged equipment and put it back on the line. They check on how it is working and performing while the engineers make the changes in production to improve the performance, as we saw today at the company we visited.

I will emphasise that this information exchange for upgrading the quality of military equipment in the special military operation must be permanent and very efficient. We began doing this a while back, in part when we used our weapons against the terrorist groups in Syria. I know that your employees, colleagues also went to Syria. They made decisions on the spot. They did a good job and continue doing a good job now.

Of course, I hope that the assignments in the state defence order on production and supplies of arms and military and other special equipment will be fulfilled in full in 2023, as was the case this year and in previous years.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the directors and teams of defence industry enterprises for their conscientious work and real contribution to strengthening Russia’s defence capability and security, and I wish you success for the benefit of the Motherland and our people. And, of course, I would like to use this opportunity to once again wish you a happy upcoming New Year holiday.

Mr Manturov, I would like to ask you to begin.

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