Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said it was necessary to “repair the logic” of the process by which surface ships and submarines were built and repaired, a news report said Wednesday.
"Taking stock of the situation must precede financing, not the other way around," RIA-Novosti quoted Shoigu as saying.
The defense minister made his comments while visiting the K-117 Bryansk Dolphin-class submarine, which for the last six years has been undergoing repairs at a floating dock belonging to the northeastern naval repair center in the town of Vilyuchinsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
The Defense Ministry has spent more than 250 million rubles ($8.3 million) to overhaul the Bryansk since 2008, a source at the ministry told Interfax.
But the money paid only for an analysis of the submarine's status. The results of the analysis prompted the repair center to recommend spending several billion rubles more on upgrading the submarine instead of repairing it.
As a result of this situation, the submarine will be transported to another facility for repairs in the summer of 2013, said a source familiar with the situation.
During his visit to Vilyuchinsk, Shoigu held a closed meeting focused on the issues related to stationing nuclear submarines in the northeast of Russia and their repairs, the Defense Ministry's news service said.
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