“It is necessary to evaluate everything and come up with the needed sum of money,” he stressed at a big press conference on Thursday. “Only after this we’ll be able to make a final decision. The Ministry of Economic Development, Rosimushchestvo, Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, specialized bodies, including the Federal Protective Service (FSO), are in charge of this issue,” the Head of State said. “I hope we’ll have enough needed information in the first quarter of the upcoming year to make our final decision,” he noticed.

Putin reminded that moving the authorities to a new place you need to provide everything that security takes. “All countries do this, including Russia. And these are direct federal budget costs,” he said. “Finally, the costs are connected with providing better conditions for the officials’ work: these are garages, personal drivers, medical care, etc. All these facilities are concentrated in Moscow. And if we move officials and leaders to “new Moscow”, the services will be left within the old frames, and it will make no sense for unloading the capital center,” emphasized the Head of State. Vladimir Putin reminded that some time ago he organized a meeting on moving the federal officers to a new administrative center. “The respective ministries and departments are charged with a task calculate the costs. It is not an ordinary issue,” President noted. According to him, it is necessary to evaluate the costs of constructing a new infrastructure system: roads, telecommunication and power capacity objects, including the governmental ones that are extremely expensive.

Project Group №5