The Security Council said Wednesday that 8.1 trillion rubles ($261 billion), including 2.6 trillion rubles from the federal budget, will be spent through 2025 to develop the North Caucasus amid growing wage arrears, high unemployment and militant attacks in the region.
The declarations were made by Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev at a special session in the Stavropol region city of Essentuki, Interfax reported.
The other 5.5 trillion rubles will come from "extrabudgetary sources," Patrushev said.
The money will be spent on "big projects able to secure efficient dynamics of social and economic development and to solve national security tasks," he said.
More than 350,000 unemployed people are registered in the region, two-thirds of them in Chechnya, Patrushev said.
"Low salaries and high unemployment are aggravated by growing wage arrears," he said.
Patrushev also stressed that terrorism "remains the chief factor of instability" in the North Caucasus, with 90 percent of all attacks nationwide, or 335 attacks, happening there this year.
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