MOSCOW, November 21 - RAPSI. The Federation Council (Russian Parliament's Upper House) has approved on Wednesday a law on increasing by 150 percent the state financing of political parties, which gained over three percent of the votes during the State Duma elections.

The bill stipulates increasing the state financing of parties from 20 rubles ($0.63) to 50 rubles ($1.59) for each vote gained in the Duma elections, if no less than three percent of the voters voted for the party.

The state financing of parties on such terms was introduced in 2001 when a new law prohibited business activities for political parties, excluding the sales of souvenirs or property.

Parties may be deprived of state financing if they did not provide their annual financial report on time.

Additional funds necessary to implement the law have already been stipulated in the draft federal budget for 2013 and the planning period for up to 2015.The funds will amount to 2 billion rubles ($63 million) in 2013, 2.2 billion rubles ($70 million) in 2014, and 2.3 billion rubles ($73.2 million) in 2015.

The additional budget assignments for 2012 will amount to 1.8 billion rubles ($57.3 million).