Russian parliament approves measures to provide economic support to military

July 5 (UPI) -- Russian lawmakers on Tuesday passed a measure that would require businesses to accept production contracts from the Russian Armed Forces amid Moscow's war with Ukraine.

The State Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament, approved a pair of measures that would essentially force businesses to produce whatever the military requests at a price and time frame set by the government.

One of the bills would allow the state to impose "special economic measures" during military operations and require firms to provide goods and services to the military.

The second would allow the government to dictate the working hours of businesses supplying the goods, including requiring employees to work at night, on weekends or on holidays.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov cited "enormous sanction pressure" from the West in response to the war, which Moscow still refers to as a "special military operation," as a reason why the measures are necessary.

"The bills introduce the obligation of organizations to conclude contracts in order to ensure counter-terrorism and other operations outside the territory of the Russian Federation, and also grant the rights to contractors to purchase products necessary to fulfill the State Defense Order from a single supplier," he said.

He also said the measures were necessary to "optimize" the work of the military-industrial complex and would not affect companies not producing goods for the military.

"This does not mean that any enterprise -- small-, medium-size business, any other -- will be forcibly involved in the implementation of state defense order measures," Borisov said, "There is no need for this."

Vyascheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, said closed-door discussions of the measures would continue Wednesday with both expected to pass quickly through parliament.