defense 27 eu countries approved 22 priorities designed to fill gaps in the defense potential of eu states. we will discuss this topic, as well as military supplies for kiev and the situation in the middle east, with the first deputy chairman of the federation council committee on defense and security , russian export representative to the eu, vladimir chezhov. vladimir alekseevich. hello. good afternoon. the press release notes the european defense press release. agency

that significant gaps arose due to insufficient investment and insufficient european cooperation, this is what we call building defense potential, how seriously do you think the european union now wants to transform itself? you know, the situation in this area of ​​activity of the european union, it is quite complicated now, having taken up the situation... for political purposes, following the united states, having undertaken to help the ukrainian regime, including the supply of weapons, and this was also all in stages, they started with helmets and body armor, then non-lethal weapons, then semi-lethal, then completely lethal, but it’s kind of light, then it gets heavier, so...

now there’s even talk about f16 fighter planes. this means, as far as the european union is concerned, as an independent player in this field, and of course, it is, uh, incomparable in its potential, but with other players, primarily in nato, with the united states, and at one time this problem was of concern several years ago , so concerned the leaders of the european union that they began to develop options for strengthening their own military potential, which was then created and written

piles of papers, various kinds of structures were created, including pesco, there was at first 47 projects, then another 22 projects, but - all this with the sauce - giving the european union strategic autonomy, this idea in itself was always quite ambiguous, because at the same time, the countries of the european union stipulated that those of them that are members of nato still consider nato to be a guarantee of their security, and these are the majority in the european union, and with the accession of finland and the impending, alas, entry of sweden, this majority will only strengthen, in fact, only four countries will remain outside of nato after this, not the largest ones, these are... austria, ireland, cyprus and

malta, well, so now, as i get up from the latest documents, including the yesov ones, as well as the eu-americans don’t even remember strategic autonomy anymore, now everyone has lined up in a single impulse, with the help of ukraine, to strengthen their own. potential, over the past years, after the cold war, during this entire period, of course, the scale of the military-industrial complex of the european union countries has decreased, this is objective fact, not all member countries produced weapons at all, and those that did, they tried to preserve

the national component in this field, that’s why they even had friction with their partners... it’s clear that, for example, in the united states, one modification of a battle tank is produced there, in the european union 12. and thus, attempts to unify this production continued, another thing is that they led to little, so far there is such inconsistency, it is observed even when the conversation began about the possibility of supplies in ukraine it turned out that not everyone has an f16; in the uk, for example, they don’t and never have had them, well, this is such a motley situation. vladimir alekseevich, as regards military assistance to ukraine directly, the german government intends to increase this assistance next year from 4 to 8 billion

euros. at the beginning of this month, the german government announced the delivery of another 25 leopards to ukraine, previously promised. what do you think, will other countries follow berlin’s example, or will this volume of supplies , on the contrary, gradually decrease against the backdrop of lack of success in the counter-offensive, and it will certainly decline, some countries have already announced a cessation, for example slovakia just the other day, and as for the 25 leopards, you did not specify that this is leopard 1, again and this is a modification somewhere: which is about 30 years old , or even 40, and then these 25 tanks are those restored after major repairs , and what effect will they have on the battlefield if the new leopards burn very successfully, but the old ones will probably turn out to be shorter-lived, and

as for the increase in military assistance v in general, well, this is the right of every country. waste money from their budget, blowing in the direction they want. another thing is that the economic situation in germany today, i believe, does not provide grounds for great optimism in terms of increasing government spending. and the country is actually recognized by international rating structures. unknown, the same applies to many other, if not most, countries of the european union. well , as for barelali’s statement that the eu

still wants to achieve the goal in the direction million ammunition for ukraine, isn’t it costly for the european economy? this is not only expensive, physically impossible, but we were talking about a million ammunition by the end of this year, which means they managed to scrape together, not produce new ones, scrape together about 300,000 in warehouses, but 300,000 is the gluttonous ukrainian army, it won't last long, but as for a million. then after that they began to say that, in fact , they did not mean the end of the year, but march of next year, but now it turns out that in march this figure will not be achieved, and the goal is to produce million shells - within a calendar

year, this goal is, of course, quite ambitious, but it will require considerable capital investments, because production. ammunition, well, producing ammunition is probably easier than an airplane or a tank, but nevertheless, for this you need to have production facilities and investments in this sector, so far today they lack both one and the other, vladimir alekseevich, but for why paris is negotiating with kiev so that ukraine purchases weapons using funds from a special fund from french suppliers, and did not receive it from the french arsenal, this is the statement of the minister of defense. why is this important for paris and how can this affect arms supplies? well, you know, this is important for paris, because the arsenals, well, i won’t say that they are empty, but are far from full, so emptying them additionally, probably, in

the opinion of the french minister of defense and military experts of this country, probably without damage to. .. it would be difficult for the national security of france itself, so the idea is to increase industrial production, but military-industrial. as american president dwight esenhower said many years ago, the military-industrial complex is that monster, so to speak, i quote inaccurately, which is capable of ruining the national economy, well, let's see, this is in the conditions of today's france... the task, here is

a special fund for french suppliers, the question is how this fund will be formed , at what expense, either from the budget, or in some other way, so this remains to be seen, now on to the situation in the middle east, how do you do you think which of the international players is now able to help the residents of gaza with medical care and you know, the international committee of the red cross and red crescent is now helping, un structures are helping, there is even a special un structure, this is bapor, for providing assistance to palestinian refugees and organizing work , such a rather old-fashioned name, but this is no coincidence. because it arose in 1947, this organization

employs about 20,000 people in the palestinian territories, of which, of course, the majority are recruited place, that is, the palestinians working for the un, unfortunately, it is in this contingent that the greatest losses are suffered. over the past 5 weeks, about 100 people have died there, employees of this bakor, and who else can , well, probably, whoever is able, so far we have not particularly observed the involvement of non-governmental organizations, but it is clear that for reasons of personnel safety, this will be the case. .. it’s difficult to do, the main thing, indeed, is medical, medical

assistance and humanitarian assistance, humanitarian convoys are passing, and we are already talking about more than hundreds of trucks that brought relevant and necessary aid items, but there are also more prosaic things, this is the supply of electricity, the supply of water, fuel for generators, primarily in the gas sector, for example, 37 hospitals of various profiles, of which they operate at the very least, with difficulty, now 15, 22 have stopped working, including the largest, here is a hospital in the city... gas - in the basements of which, according to the version of the israeli side,

supported by the united states, there are some kind of headquarters premises and hamas and thus, the hospital was used by hamas as a cover, well, now israeli troops have already entered the territory of this hospital, so far they have not shown any traces, well , we’ll see, maybe, i don’t know, the question is, why do you think such a large amount of time the question of the return of russian hostages captured by hamas militants is occupied, and this is a complex question, firstly, uh, there is no certainty that all of them were captured by hamas, because in the territory of the gaza strip... there are also a lot of various small organizations operating

palestinian resistance, who could, so to speak, try to get ahead of it, it could be hamas in this matter, this is the first, second, and where they are stored and to what extent are the places where they are kept, how safe are they for... evacuating them, so without interaction with those who really control the situation, and since the question is about the removal of hostages, and indeed all russian citizens there, don’t be afraid without the participation of the israeli side, but at the same time, naturally, at some stage the question arises about the legal status of everyone of these

people, after all, it is not difficult to assume that many of them may have dual citizenship , that is, russian and israeli, and accordingly tel aviv will treat them as its own citizens, so not everything is simple, but this work continues, my colleagues, in my previous work, employees of the ministry of foreign affairs at other points provide assistance in physical evacuation, plus, of course, practical representatives of the ministry of emergency situations and other specialized structures. vladimir alekseevich, in your opinion,

is there a risk that other countries in the region will join the middle east conflict? well, the middle east conflict is therefore called by such a general name that a number of countries in the region are traditionally involved in it, and another thing is how they behave, so to speak, in the current situation, how actively they are involved, yes, from the territory of lebanon, into rockets are flying towards israel. but we must keep in mind that, unlike hamas, hezbollah, on lebanese territory, this is a legal political party that has its own faction in parliament, another thing is that they have a military wing, which apparently loads mortars, the israelis open fire.

lebanon, plus, on the territory of syria, there is also, as they say, restless , american bases there are periodically shelled and so on, so it is clear that the palestinian-israeli conflict is the most acute part, of course, and requires the most urgent solution, part of a more general middle east node, if we remember the past phases of the conflict, then, as a rule , both neighboring countries and egypt were involved in it both syria and jordan were involved, so this needs to be resolved as a whole, vladimir

alekseevich, one more question, the sixteenth verona-eurasian economic forum ended in samarkand. on one platform it brought together about a thousand participants from 27 countries of the world, the motto is the economy of trust, business diplomacy from the atlantic ocean to the pacific, why was it interesting and useful? and you know, i have participated in the verona forum probably for the sixth time already, including last years it was held in verona, so as they say, last year in baku, for obvious reasons , and this year in samarkand, but before that, of course, there was a pause associated with the pandemic, and you know, i think this is a useful initiative, coming also from, well, in addition to the local co-organizers, in this case, the government of uzbekistan and

russian government structures, but also private businesses, including european ones. italian business was quite actively represented there, but not only were there representatives from 27 countries, including delegations from iran, mongolia, there were chinese representatives, but this is a platform for discussing the prospects for normalizing the situation in the eurasian region and further developing cooperation, that is, this confirms that neither russia is, is not currently in isolation, but contacts, that is, there are

interest in such contacts, but this is not only a discussion, there is a forum for , among other things, coordination of parameters, strategic projects, so i will give two examples, last year in baku, the focus was on the north-south transport corridor project, which is designed to connect the north of the european part of russia, through the coast, including the western coast of the caspian sea, through azerbaijan, further, with access to iran, and india and, so to speak, the equator of the indian ocean, samarkant, an ancient city, which,

by the way, is the same age as the ancient greek athens, rome, and other, so to speak, objects of history related to the history of the ancient world, and so, samargan. always such a transport hub on what was called the classic silk stream, and the silk route, and that is, if last year, the main vector was north-south, but now, of course, west- east, in one direction to the other, so there are opportunities for discussion, opportunities for specific... thank you, unfortunately, we have to finish, let me remind you that we spoke with the first deputy chairman federation council committee on

defense and security, russian expostate pris, vladimir chezhov. we continue to implement logistics center projects using the principles of public-private partnerships in the region, discussed today at a business breakfast gazprom bank, it was held as part of the transport of russia forum. my colleague anna lazareva followed the discussion. anna, greetings, the floor is yours. hello. vera, the russian economy is developing more and more in an eastern direction, international trade is also actively and dynamically developing, in this sense , transbaikalia is a unique region. as the discussion participants noted, the region is the most successful entry point for business closest to china. there are eight border crossings in the region. and the total cargo turnover potential is estimated at 85 million tons. to with the current 20 million, you can easily increase 65 million

tons of cargo transportation in a variety of modalities, in a variety of ways, and it will cost less than 60 billion rubles. by the way, we are implementing the first stage, the second stage of modernization of the eastern training ground, we are approaching the third, there we are adding 20-30 each time. they plan to develop the region’s infrastructure through a public -private partnership mechanism, and one of the projects was presented today by gazprom bank, this is a multimodal logistics hub, it is planned to build three facilities in chita, zabaikalskiy at borze station. all sites will be included in the territories of international advanced development; for the bank this is a long-term investment.

in general, business considers investments in the transbaikal region to be important and timely, for example, the fesco company has begun construction of a terminal in transbaikalia, the launch is scheduled for the second half of 2025. yeah, well, the key event of the forum, the transport forum , is still to come, this is in the afternoon, the prime minister, mikhail, the prime minister, will take part in the plenary session, mikhail mishustin, we will follow the events, live broadcast from the forum on our channel. i believe that the more cargo we take from transib to mongolia to china , we will free up capacity for this

t. this was presidential aide igor levitin, but we continue to monitor the main events of the transport forum. anna, thank you, my colleague, anna lazareva, is working at the russian transport forum today. we continue, a digital plant for the production of equipment for the gas industry has opened in moscow, it will ensure safe operation infrastructure, new technologies will make production more reliable and efficient. taras kucharenko found out what is hidden behind the words digital factory. monitor technological processes in the gas industry and prevent an accident even before it occurs based on analytical data. the company has been

in business for 15 years. autonomous explosion-proof telemetry and telemechanics complexes. during this time, technology has changed a lot, the first equipment was not only bulky, but also not dismountable, everything had to be changed if a part failed, now the design modular, which means it can be easily upgraded. this equipment you could not change all the functions that it performed, they were already included initially, but here you could expand it and connect it accordingly. yes, yes, yes, of course, that is, accordingly, nothing stands still, everything is developing, new sensors appear, new equipment, respectively, if earlier any development when introducing innovations was impossible, simply because it is a monoblock structure, then now all we need to do is not re-develop the controller, and to develop just one module, equipment and development of domestic production, only a processor from foreign countries from asian countries, its replacement with a russian one is one of the company’s immediate prospects, once upon a time such a telemetry complex

came... the internet even in the most inaccessible places, that made the technology very expensive, now all communications are via wireless secure internet, and the equipment is autonomous, explosion-proof and energy-saving. now everything you need for gasification, starting from pipes, gas analyzers, gas-using equipment, gas control equipment, produces everything. in the russian federation , and today you can see this when you visit the axitech plant, because everything is really russian and it is very gratifying that in this sense, in the sense of digitalization of gas supplies, we are also technologically independent. today the company is expanding, a new technological site has been opened, it is called a digital plant. what is a digital factory? this is a factory

where every action is tracked with information you can even do it from your smartphone. now the company will produce about 500 complexes per year, this is five times more than before. why is digitalization needed? if, let’s say , something happened at the site, and we have a very wide geography of objects, it doesn’t matter, kemerovo, khabarovsk, the far east, we can do it as quickly and in detail as possible. what happened , what broke at the site, what, how it can be fixed, and some issues can be resolved remotely by installing new firmware and solving the problem without leaving at all. basic buyer of gazprom mezhregiongaz products. the company is implementing a gasification program that is constantly expanding; over the last 2 years alone, it has included more than a million additional households.

went along with the introduction and development of a system for the safe use of gas in everyday life, it is very important that the consumer, especially from the population , is equipped with a smart gas metering device, so that the readings of the transmission of readings through the metering unit are carried out automatically , the implementation of gas supply development programs and gasification of russian pre-gasification regions encourage enterprises to increase their capacity, the digital plant will become even larger. we are planning to build another enterprise on the territory of the technology park, we have already submitted an application, a new building is now being built, a new building will be built on an area of ​​about 2,000 km. but now the company has the opportunity to increase production volumes by at least 50%. taraskuren.