MOSCOW, January 10 – RAPSI. An eight-year program aimed at developing the Russian judicial system costing 90 billion rubles ($2.96 billion) has been approved by the government, according to its press service.

The program proposes the construction of 92 federal general jurisdiction courts and divisions of the Supreme Court’s judicial departments, 11 commercial courts, eight Justice Ministry forensic institutions and 22 Federal Bailiffs Service regional department buildings.

In addition to the 65 billion rubles ($2.13 billion) designated for construction, another nine billion rubles ($295.8 million) will be used for IT support, while around 7 billion rubles ($230.1 million) will go towards providing judges with housing, Minister of Economic Development Andrey Belousov said.

The program was put together by the Ministry of Economic Development and was approved by the government on December 20.

As part of the program, one billion rubles ($32.8 million) will be allocated for the protection of general jurisdiction courts by 2020, and just over 2 billion rubles ($65.7 million) will be allocated for the construction of commercial courts.

The total expenditure on the protection of the courts will grow from 363 million rubles ($11.9 million) in 2013 to 524 million ($17.2 million) in 2015, and will then stabilize at 260 million rubles a year ($8.5 million) from 2018.

Courts will be equipped with turnstiles, alarm and surveillance systems, means for discovering explosive devices and poisonous substances, search facilities for staff and visitors, and equipment for searching visitors’ bags.