MOSCOW - Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said there would be no banking crisis or default in the autumn of 2004. He made this statement in an interview with NTV television company.

According to Mr. Kudrin, it is due first to the existing system of budget planning and the creation of the stabilization fund. “Our stabilization fund protects us against a repetition of the 1998 crisis,” he stressed.

The Finance Minister said the funding of the Federal Security Service had increased threefold over the past four years. “I will give figures that I have never given before. From 2000 to 2004, the funding of the Federal Security Service increased threefold,” Mr. Kudrin said.

According to Mr. Kudrin, allocations for the Interior Ministry increased 2.5 times over the indicated, and allocations for the border troops doubled.