During his trip to Izhevsk, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin inspected the embankment of the Izhevsk water reservoir together with President of Udmurtia Alexander Volkov. The republic's authorities are providing it with public services and amenities with the support of the federal government.

Now the embankment has about 100 km of public utilities, around one kilometre of a stone block pavement for pedestrians and a bicycle path. Greenery has been planted and several parking lots built. Mr Volkov reported to the prime minister that the walkways down to the embankment have been provided with ramps for use by prams and wheelchairs.

"Everything here used to be overgrown and looked terrible," Mr Volkov recalled. He said that the overall costs on improvements ran into about one billion roubles, out of which one third came from the federal budget. Next the local authorities are planning to fortify the banks and to provide amenities for additional sections of the embankment.

"That means you are going to ask for money again. How much extra do you need?" Vladimir Putin asked with a smile. Alexander Volkov replied that about 300 million roubles were required for the job.