"In the near future, the Government will approve a programme for organising the celebrations of the 90^th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Karelia," said Mr Zubkov when opening the meeting.

According to the Deputy Prime Minister, over five billion roubles will be spent on the celebrations, including 1.7 billion roubles from the federal budget, 1.9 billion roubles from the budgets of the Republic of Karelia and local governments, and 1.4 billion roubles from non-government sources.

The participants at the meeting reviewed the progress in preparing for the celebrations, which will be held from June 3 to 8 of 2010, and paid particular attention to the implementation of the projects that had already been launched, including the renovation of the National Library of the Republic of Karelia, the construction of a 69-unit block of flats in the town of Sortavala, and the completion of a segment of the highway from Kochkoma to the Finnish border, through Tiksha, Ledmozero and Kostomuksha.