Putin Directs Russian Aerospace Sector to Develop New Rocket Engines

Says Russia remains a leading force in the development of the aerospace industry.

Sat Sep 06 2025
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MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged the country’s aerospace industry to speed up the development of advanced rocket engines, aiming to strengthen Russia’s status as a global leader in space innovation.

Putin, who was in China last week, flew to the southern Russian city of Samara, where he met industry specialists and visited the Kuznetsov design bureau aircraft engine manufacturing plant.

According to Russian news agencies, Putin said Russia remained a leading force in the development of the aerospace industry.

“It is important to consistently renew production capacity in terms of engines for booster rockets,” the agencies quoted Putin as saying.

“And in doing so, we must not only meet our own current and future needs but also move actively on world markets and be successful competitors.”

Putin highlighted Russia’s achievements in engine innovation, particularly within the energy sector, despite facing Western sanctions.

“In conditions of restrictions from sanctions, we succeeded in a short period of time in developing a series of innovative engines for energy,” Putin was quoted as saying. “These are being actively used, including in terms of gas transport infrastructure.”

Putin called it “an extremely important theme”, particularly for the development of Russian gas exports, including the planned Power of Siberia 2 pipeline under discussion in China this week to bring Russian gas to China.

President Vladimir Putin praised the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, calling it a mutually beneficial project. Although originally proposed years ago, the pipeline has taken on new urgency as Russia seeks to shift its energy exports toward China amid Europe’s efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy following the Ukraine war.

Putin also highlighted progress on the development of the PD-26 aircraft engine, noting that it will enable the production of both military transport aircraft and wide-body passenger planes.

“The development of this project will allow for the modernisation not only of military transport aircraft, but also opens up prospects for the construction of a new generation of wide-bodied civil planes,” he was quoted as saying.

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