MOSCOW, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered to allocate about 27 billion rubles ( nearly one billion U.S. dollars) from the federal budget to support the problem-burden single-industry towns, or so-called mono-cities.

SINGLE INDUSTRY, THREE TOWNS, NUMEROUS PROBLEMS

The first city to receive the state financial support in 2010 is Togliatti, in the mid-Volga Samara area, which was home of the largest Russian car-maker and the city's principal employer, AvtoVAZ.

The city of 720,000 population will be granted the equivalent of 20 million dollars for developing a hi-tech cluster inside its municipal borders in the future.

The other two mono-cities included in the governmental life- support program are heavily-polluted Nizhni Tagil located in the southern Urals and Sokol in northern Russia's Vologda region.

They will get assistance in creating and renovating local public utilities, transportation infrastructure, small businesses and chemical enterprises.

All the apartment buildings will be repaired in every town included in the program, Putin said during a government meeting devoted to enhancing efficiency of the state budget expenses.

The problems of Russian mono-cities surfaced publicly after a general strike hit the town of Pikalyovo in Northern Russia in 2009. The town of 20,000 residents had been life-supported by the single industry complex only, owned by the Basel, the company of the richest man in Russia, Oleg Deripaska.

After having not been paid for several months, Pikalyovo residents went on a town-wide strike. The unrest prompted Putin to summon Deripaska into the town where the head of the government humiliated the Basel's founder during a live TV broadcast, by forcing the man to promise it aloud that he would pay the arrears of the workers.

TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR NEXT TEN YEARS

Also at Thursday's meeting, Putin announced that all Russian health care and educational institutions, both state-run and private, will be made exempt from the profit tax for the period up to 2020.

The hi-tech enterprises, software companies and mass media will meanwhile be paying lower taxes until 2015, according to the government's official website.

In order to make these intentions feasible, the government has to amend the Tax Code of Russia.

All in all, Putin authorized the government to work out over 40 long-term programs devoted to resolving the country's problems in demography, health care, education, housing, labor efficiency, among other issues.

On Wednesday the Russian government unveiled a plan of spending 800 billion rubles (26.7 billion dollars) on 38 innovative projects of modernization over the next three years, a move which analysts said marking the commencement of Russia's full-scale economic modernization process.

Russian leaders have repeatedly urged the necessity of economic modernization and technological development, in order to help the energy-reliant Russian economy evolve into an innovative one.