The programme will operate from 2016 to 2020 and will replace the current sports development scheme, due to expire at the end of next year.

It will form part of a general attempt to promote physical activity among young people, with special awards and titles to be handed out to high achievers across various different sports.

Increasing the number of school-level sport competitions in the most popular disciplines, such as basketball, football, ice hockey and volleyball, will be another focus.

"Provisionally, there are plans for 73.9 billion rubles to be allocated at the prices of the corresponding years for the federal programme by 2020," Putin rtold Ria Novosti, during the session of the Presidential Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport.

"I believe, [sport] competitions between schools are very interesting and unite the children around their teams."

As well as the funding, young Russians will have plenty more major sporting events on home turf to increase their sporting interest over the next few years, including the Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi this weekend ©Getty Images



It will be hoped that this work will build upon recent success with regard to increasing the number of Russians engaging in sporting activity.

According to opinion research agency VCIOM, in 2013, 33 per cent of Russians practiced sports at least once a week, as opposed to just 20 per cent in 2006, while the number of schoolchildren engaging in physical activity stood at 55 per cent.

This funding will complement the benefits of Russia's "Decade of Sport", in which a number of major events, including the 2013 World Athletics Championships, the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, as well as this weekend's Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi, are taking place in Russia.

In a longer term it will also be hoped the programme will facilitate a boost in high level performance among Russian athletes, including at the Olympic Games, and compliment the work being done in that regard by the Russian Olympic Committee.