Russia to spend some $2.8 bln to tackle unemployment

MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will spend some 100 billion rubles ($2.8 bln) to tackle rising unemployment in the country amid the global financial crisis, the health and social development minister was quoted as saying on Friday. There were 1.89 million jobless in Russia against 75.7 million employed people as of February 24. "To curb the rise, substantial sums are being allocated. A total of some 100 billion rubles will be spent," Tatyana Golikova was quoted as saying.

She said the labor sector would be receiving the unprecedented sum for the first time.

The Russian government made a decision in late 2008 to allocate 43.7 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) to try and stem the rise in unemployment in 2009.

Labor departments later said an additional 30 billion rubles ($839.8 million) would be required to implement programs to tackle unemployment in the regions now that the jobless figures had exceeded 1.6 million.