MOSCOW, November 21 (RAPSI) - President Vladimir Putin said that it is necessary to break through the “bureaucratic red tape” and allow small business to bid in state tenders, RIA Novosti reported on Friday.

Putin earlier stated that the government has to develop a set of criteria that would steer the 3 trillion rubles state procurement market towards Russian producers, including mid-sized and small businesses.

The President added that Russia’s obligations as a member state of the WTO would not be violated, as the state procurement is outside of global trade jusrisdiction.

Head of OPORa NGO for small and mid-sized business Aleksandr Kalinin told the president, that the federal legislation set up quotas for smaller business in the state procurement and natural monopolies: businessmen nationwide can extract 3 trillion rubles out the 12 trillion fund. Kalinin added that if special preferences for Russian businesses were added, the market could grow even further. All is needed, the business leader concluded, is the issuing of amendments stipulated by the original law itself.