UST-LUGA (Leningrad Region), June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia plans to build a new sea port on the Taman peninsula, bounded by the Black Sea and the Kerch Strait opposite Ukraine's Crimea, a Russian first deputy premier said Friday.
"We have plans to build a new port in the Krasnodar Territory on the Taman [peninsula]," Sergei Ivanov said.
He said the modernization of country's port system is an important factor in the development of the Russian economy.
The former defense minister attended Friday an opening of a new port complex in the city of Ust-Luga, in the Leningrad Region on the Bay of Finland.
The port currently handles 13 million tons of cargo annually, but the figure is expected to increase by 1.8 million tons in 2008 reaching 36 million tons by 2010.
Ivanov also said Russia will continue to develop ports in Murmansk, Nakhodka, and Kaliningrad.
