Russian Government Founds United Shipbuilding Corporation

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed a decree founding the United Shipbuilding Corporation on Friday, June 15. A Russian government press release describes the fully state-owned corporation as an “open joint stock company with its headquarters in St Petersburg.” The corporation will be headed by the presidential aide for the defense sector, Alexander Burutin. The package of decrees establishing this government-sponsored project to consolidate all state monetary possessions in the shipbuilding sector was first signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 22, 2007. The package of decrees consolidating the different shipbuilding organizations and institutes is summarized in a Russian government press release at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/themes/2007/03/222146_120605.shtml#. The Russian first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, who is in charge of the project, wanted the corporation’s headquarters to be in Saint Petersburg because it is Russia’s second-largest city and where the primary shipbuilding research and development agencies are. The corporation is to have three subsidiaries: the Western Shipbuilding Center in St. Petersburg, the Northern Shipbuilding and Maintenance Center in Severodvinsk, and the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Maintenance Center in Vladivostok. Because the United Shipbuilding Corporation will use military shipbuilding facilities for civilian building, Ivanov and others believe it will help Russia’s struggling civilian shipbuilding sector. At the moment, military orders have overwhelmed Russian docks, leaving little room and equipment for civilian shipbuilding.