She said this during a speech at the final meeting of the board of the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia.

"This year, the total amount of state support is planned at the level of 4.5 billion rubles," TASS quoted her as saying.

According to her, this includes, among other things, subsidies for growing crops, milk production and support for enterprises in the baking industry.

"It is important to support rural employment in new regions. We will allocate 952 million rubles for this support measure this year," Abramchenko added.

Earlier, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree on the launch of a preferential loan program for small and medium-sized businesses in new Russian regions.