Putin told a government session on the power sector attended by the heads of electricity monopoly Unified Energy System (UES) and energy giant Gazprom that a crucial development program for the sector must be drawn up as soon as possible.
"It is somewhat strange that the country, one of the world's energy leaders, does not have the capacities for its own development," he said.
"I suggest that a final decision must be taken by the government, but today ... I would like to listen to proposals on what we must do in the near future to drastically change the situation," he said.
"According to data from the Industry and Energy Ministry, RAO UES is not in a condition to meet demand from commercial consumers for 50 billion MWh of electric energy. This is a shortfall. This means that [if the extra capacity were available], GDP growth would increase by 5% a year," Putin said.
The president told those present that the issue had been discussed with almost the same officials in February, and that several objectives had been set, including securing investment and power-supply reliability for Moscow, St. Petersburg, and West Siberia, but little progress had been made since then.
