MOSCOW, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government will provide 50 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) to increase the charter capital of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Wednesday.

"As a shareholder, the government needs to think about its own companies, and here we are looking at participating in a number of projects and investments," Kudrin told a news conference in Moscow.

He also said that the state would provide financial support to companies in cases where there is a strong need for social support and job protection.

He said "particular attention" would be given to companies that employ large shares of their cities' workforces, and singled out truckmaker GAZ in Nizhny Novgorod, and carmaker AvtoVAZ in Togliatti. Both companies have been hard-hit by falling sales amid the credit crunch.