His comments came at a government strategy meeting in Moscow where Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said it was necessary to improve the quality of new laucnhers and satellites and that Russia's space programme should focus on the "quality and not the number" of satellites.

But Putin insisted that while quality and "operational schedules" were significant criteria for Russia's satellites, "their number is also extremely important".

The Kommersant daily on Monday reported that a Russian spy satellite launched this week had failed to open one of its solar panels and could not fulfil its mission.

The Kosmos-2421, a navy satellite for intelligence-gathering and identifying targets, was launched on Sunday from Baikonur, Russia's cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Kommersant said.

The paper said Russia only had one active spy satellite.

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