Funds Allocated To Support Industry Do Not Reach Enterprises - Russian Watchdog

The Russian Audit Chamber chairman, Sergey Stepashin, has said that the implementation of anticrisis measures in Russia's real economy is not effective enough.

"The funds which are allocated from the budget in the framework of anticrisis measures have never reached enterprises except for Pikalevo (a monoindustry town in Leningrad Region, the scene of recent mass unrest over job cuts) that was visited by the prime minister (Vladimir Putin) and (major Russian car manufacturer) AvtoVAZ, for example. Several trillion roubles have been spent for crediting the banking sphere in order to save banks and give loans," Stepashin told journalists in Novosibirsk today.

Thus, in the first half of 2009, only 10-15 per cent of the funds allocated to banks reached specific consumers and regions, he said. (Passage omitted)