During his visit to the city of Kstovo, the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Vladimir Putin took a bus tour of the production sites of two companies and launched the production of European-class petrol in one of them - LUKoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez. The prime minister pressed the start button along with the plant's employees.

As LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov told reporters, the new facility will produce 2 million metric tonnes of Euro 5 petrol a year from fuel oil and will make its first deliveries in December.

During the visit, the prime minister was told in detail about the processing of associated gas, which is also used to make PVC products. Experts believe that modern living would be impossible without such products: they are components of many building materials, toys and even plastic bank cards.

Vladimir Putin also visited the integrated control room, used to operate 43 technological facilities in LUKoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez and SIBUR-Neftekhim.

The prime minister also talked to a group of young employees, who started working in the control room right after graduating from university. The prime minister asked them whether they liked this work and praised them for their choice of profession.

Vladimir Putin asked employees from both plants about their salaries and was told it was about 30,000 roubles a month and grew each year ahead of inflation.