“Many interests in the defense and security sector”

Many interests in the defense and security sector

The President of Russia opened a new natural gas liquefaction line construction site on the Koillisväylä. In addition, he promised the inhabitants of the Arctic region a state-supported interest rate ceiling for mortgages.

Vesa-Pekka Hiltunen,

Sari Pöyhönen

President of Russia Vladimir Putin has visited Murmansk. On Thursday, Putin launched the first liquefied natural gas line at the Arctic LNG-2 project in Belokamenka, which is under construction near the city of Murmansk.

Arctic LNG 2 is Russia’s third large-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) production project. Others are Gazprom’s Sakhalin 2 plant in the Pacific Ocean and Yamal LNG controlled by Novatek, the news agency says Reuters.

The new LNG route runs from the Murmansk region along the Northeast Passage to the future production plant on the Gydan peninsula, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. There are three production lines, and each has a capacity of 6.6 million tons of LNG annually. The value of the investment is approximately USD 21.3 billion.

Russia’s goal is to get a fifth of the world’s LNG market by 2035. The current share is around eight percent.

State-supported interest rate ceiling for housing loans for residents of the Arctic region

According to media reports and Kremlin announcements, during his visit late on Thursday night, Putin met not only the management of Novatek, but also the governor of the Murmansk region.

The most concrete thing that was achieved at the meeting was the Russian president’s promise to financially support the inhabitants of the Arctic region.

Now residents in the Murmansk region also receive state support for housing loans. According to the new mandate, the mortgage interest rate is a maximum of 2 percent. However, the subsidy and the state-supported interest rate cap only apply to young families who purchase an apartment. They will receive interest subsidy until 2030.

According to the Murmansk media, Putin said that the support will significantly affect the lives of the residents of the Arctic region. Russia already has experience with that: the state-supported 2 percent interest rate cap has been used in the Russian Far East.

– 73,000 young Russian families have (with the help of interest subsidies) improved their living conditions in the Russian Far East, says Vladimir Putin According to the news from the TV21 channel.

“Many interests in the area in the defense and security sector”

In the conversations between the president and the governor published in the Kremlin press releases, it appears that attention is being paid to the living conditions at the military bases in the Murmansk region. The young families who receive interest subsidies may be families of soldiers.

– I won’t go into details now, but we have a lot of interests in the area in the field of defense and security. Therefore, people who live in these conditions must be able to live in good conditions. And special attention must be paid to that, Putin said at the governor’s meeting According to the Kremlin press release.

According to the media, Putin arrived in Murmansk on Thursday evening Finnish time. It is not clear from media information whether Putin is still on the Kola Peninsula. According to the Flight Radar service, the state plane used by the Russian president has left Murmansk on Friday morning and the plane flew via the east side of Lake Ääninen towards Moscow.

According to The Barents Observer Putin had not visited Murmansk since 2014, when he visited Russia’s Northern Fleet base on Russian Navy Day.

21.7.2023 at 12:35 Updated the news with information from Russian sources and clarified the news.

21/07/2023 at 12:55 Updated the main image and title.

yl-01