By Brendan Cole, Newsweek, 4/15/24

Vladimir Putin has ordered his prime minister to create a shipbuilding plan for the next decade within two months, after one of his officials lamented how western sanctions had hampered a large civic fleet from being built.

Western-led sanctions imposed since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have included cutting the supply of foreign technology crucial for Russia’s military as well as its industry and manufacturing sectors.

Head of Russia’s Fisheries Agency, Ilya Shestakov, told Putin last week that only 22 out 105 fishing vessels planned in a state program had been built so far because sanctions had choked the supply of “actively used” western technologies.

The Central Research Institute “Kurs”, said that 84 percent of Russian ships under construction at the end of last year might not be delivered and 28 out of 49 vessels scheduled for delivery in the coming year needed redesigning, Russian government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.

While an order published on the Kremlin website on April 10 does not directly mention western sanctions, it says a plan must ensure the financial and technical competitiveness of vessels built at Russian shipyards, “including measures to ensure the development and production of the most significant ship components.”

The plan must pay special attention to the construction of ships that “export deliveries of Russian products” until 2035.

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