Agenda: budgetary allocations to support power supply in the Belgorod Region, the implementation of the state programme to develop sports in the regions, and progress in carrying out the Infrastructural Menu programme.
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks
Marat Khusnullin’s report on implementing the Infrastructural Menu programme
Excerpts from the transcript:
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Meeting with deputy prime ministers on current issues
Mikhail Mishustin: Good morning, colleagues.
First of all, I want to say some words about supporting the Belgorod Region. Power supply was disrupted in some of its municipal entities.
It was restored, including using reserve sources. New capacities are required to provide for an uninterrupted supply of the population.
We are going to allocate approximately half a billion roubles to purchase them, which will let us deliver about 300 generators to the region residents and so establish reliable electricity and heating supply to apartment buildings and socially important facilities – schools, kindergartens, hospitals and outpatient clinics.
The President stressed: we should find out what else must be done in addition, what has yet to be restored as necessary, and to complete this work shortly.
The Government continues its systemic assistance to our border regions.
To another topic.
The President noted that people of all ages and with different levels of physical fitness should have an opportunity for regular sports exercises. Their health, the quality of life and life expectancy depend on this.
For a maximum availability of necessary infrastructure in the regions we are running the relevant state programme, thanks to which we built and repaired more than 500 of various facilities – from swimming pools and fitness centres to stadiums and open-air grounds for muscle building.
Now, on the President’s instructions we have approved a new set of measures which will raise the attractiveness of physical training for the working people.
There are plans to increase the network of corporate sports clubs and supply them with modern equipment and appliances at the expense of regional funds and co-finance tournaments and competitions from the federal budget. We have earmarked 645 million roubles for these purposes this year.
It is very important that people across the country have the opportunity to practice sports. Mr Chernyshenko, please pay close attention to this.
One more important topic. It is about developing the infrastructure that is necessary for people’s comfortable life in the regions. I mean kindergartens, schools, outpatient clinics, cultural and sports facilities, as well as those of the housing and public utilities system. We discussed this issue during our report at the State Duma.
This is the domain of the Russian Federation constituent entities. And the Government has established a set of financial mechanisms involving public financing to help them. Including, I remind you, with the possibility to write off two thirds of the debt under such lending. And the infrastructural loans that the regions may use to upgrade their public utility networks. This is a very sensitive issue for many residents.
Mr Khusnullin, please tell us how this programme is being implemented in greater detail. And what projects do the regions plan to apply these instruments for this year?
Marat Khusnullin: Mr Mishustin, colleagues. In the current economic environment, efficient measures of support for constituent entities of the Russian Federation are extremely important.
The Government approved a set of instruments, which we called the Infrastructural Menu, to create comfortable conditions for living. The instruments include infrastructure loans, preferential loans and means from the National Wealth Fund, infrastructural bonds.
The most capital-intensive mechanism is the infrastructure loans. They are issued by regions on advantageous conditions at 3 percent for 15 years, which makes it possible to implement projects that have a multiplying effect on both territory development and economic growth while avoiding heavy load on regional budgets.
As of today, since 2021, thanks to infrastructure loans, more than a thousand projects and events have been completed in Russia in the field of utilities, social services, roads and other infrastructure important to citizens.
We make a special emphasis on upgrading the housing and utilities system as the most complex sector, in which problems have been accumulating for decades.
The modernisation of water supply, water disposal and heating facilities and networks will improve the quality of utilities and reduce the accident rate. This is the foundation of a comfortable life.
The federal project Modernisation of Utilities Infrastructure that was launched in 2025 under the national project Infrastructure for Life just aimed at solving this problem. In the first year of its implementation, we managed to make certain progress. Thus, by the end of 2025, the quality of public services had already improved for 8 million people.
As I have already said, infrastructure loans also make their contribution to modernising the housing and utilities system. Over half of the 1,000 completed projects and activities, or 641 projects to be precise, were in the housing and utilities sector. Infrastructure loans have been used to replace over 2,000 km of utility networks to date.
Moreover, these instruments of regional support are used for building and repairing kindergartens, schools, outpatient clinics, roads, bridges and purchasing public service vehicles.
I want to speak separately about some facilities that were put into operation. Lately, the reconstruction of the Altai – Aya – Biryuzovaya Katun motorway section in the Altai Territory and the construction of a road in the special economic zone in Orenburg have been completed.
Among the completed landmark projects are: the main water pipeline in Penza, a bridge over the Upa River in Tula, a new polyclinic in Kaluga, a bypass around Togliatti with a bridge over the Volga River in the Samara Region, and the largest school in the Volga Federal District in Ufa for 2,200 pupils, and many other projects.
The completion of such projects not only creates comfortable conditions for living but also gives a powerful impetus to economic development. Almost 42 million square metres of housing have been commissioned and over 200,000 jobs have been created in Russia since 2021, thanks to projects involving infrastructure public budget and special treasury loans. Regional budgets have received almost 250 billion roubles in tax and non-tax revenues.
Given the efficiency of the infrastructure public budget loans programme, the Government started the mechanism of infrastructure treasury loans since 2025, to continue the programme. To date, the Government Commission on Regional Development, together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development, has approved 267 projects, which cover 755 facilities and activities. The applications are still being considered and approved.
Most part of the treasury loan funds are intended to modernise the housing and utilities system. (We have a rule: not less than 50 percent.) The funds will also be earmarked for priority projects as per the President’s instructions, for long-term plans of the Far East and Arctic development and for the investment projects selected by bidding.
All the projects are designed to improve the quality of life. Many of them will not only help improve the existing infrastructure but also create capacity for growth and future development. This is important for comprehensive development of territories, which constitutes the core objective of the national project Infrastructure for Life.
So, the regions now have the necessary effective tools to solve infrastructure problems and make people's lives more comfortable. The support of the President and the work of the Government under your constant attention, Mr Mishustin, have helped to create this system, for which I would like to express my special gratitude. We will continue to implement such projects step by step to improve the quality of life of Russian citizens.
Mikhail Mishustin: Thank you, Mr Khusnullin. We have a great amount of work to do. And, of course, it is necessary to control the realisation of these projects personally. Their completion makes life more comfortable for the people.
This week, on March 15, we will mark Housing and Utilities Workers’ Day. I want to take this opportunity to greet those who have dedicated themselves to this complicated sector, which is very important for the economy, as the functioning of industry, residential and social facilities directly depend on it.
I want to greet all those who work in this industry, as well as its veteran workers, and wish them good health and all the best.
