MOSCOW, October 24 (Itar-Tass) —— President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree that will provide 1,110 families of former Northern Fleet officers with housing.
According to the Northern Fleet commander’s directives, persons who served in the Northern Fleet for 10 years and more and dismissed from service before January 1, 2005 upon reaching the maximum age, for health reasons or in connection with reorganisation should be included in the waiting lists for housing to be provided at the expense of the Defence Ministry.
These directives were cancelled from March 1, 2005 following the entry into force of the new Housing Code.
Persons who were not put on the waiting lists before January 1, 2005 were not entitled to new housing.
All army officers in Russia will be provided with housing, Medvedev assured them earlier this year.
"We have started this work [to provide the military with housing] and will bring it to the end despite the financial crisis," the president said.
He said the government would perform its obligations with regard to other social problems too.
Medvedev said he was pleased by how army officers are provided with housing.
"I do not feel ashamed of these programme," Medvedev said.
He said the provision of officers with housing was critical to the army. "This issue directly affects the combat readiness of the Armed Forces. I think special programmes for the resolution of this issue are quite effective, and I will tell you frankly: I do not feel ashamed of them," Medvedev said.
"In recent years thousands of officers have received key to new flats. The idea is to provide them with permanent abode," he said, adding, "Work in this respect will continue, and the set goals will not change."
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier demanded comfortable and affordable housing, complete with social infrastructure, for the military.
"This is a tremendous amount of work, and I urge you to work like a team at the current level of technology, at affordable and economically justified prices, with good quality," Putin said.
"All issues should be addressed in a comprehensive manner: social, utility and road infrastructure should be prepared in advance and properly," Putin said.
"There are modern technologies, well-established and smoothly operating construction companies, and there is funding," he added.
The Defence Ministry has requested an additional 49 billion roubles for housing for its servicemen in 2011.
"The current pace of construction will allow us to build 14,300 flats this year. But they will have to paid for in the amount of 27 billion roubles," chief of the Russian Army General Staff, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov said.
The ministry also needs another 22 billion roubles for projects to be commissioned in 2012.
"In 2011-2013, more than 77,000 flats will be purchased for the military for permanent living. The federal budget will provide almost 150 billion roubles to this end," he said.
The government also plans to provide housing to military servicemen with temporary housing by the end of 2012. "We have set aside more than 45 billion roubles for the provision of Defence Ministry personnel with temporary housing and relocation of people living in dilapidated housing. Together with personnel from the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service other such agencies, this will make 60.3 billion roubles in 2011-2013," the prime minister said.
The Russian government will earmark about 250 billion roubles for the construction of housing for the military, Putin said.
"Military servicemen and their families do not need bare square metres and flats designed in Soviet times, but comfortable housing," he said.
"In 2011-2013, more than 77,000 flats will be purchased for the military for permanent living. The federal budget will provide almost 150 billion roubles to this end," he said.
The government also plans to provide housing to military servicemen with temporary housing by the end of 2012. "We have set aside more than 45 billion roubles for the provision of Defence Ministry personnel with temporary housing and relocation of people living in dilapidated housing. Together with personnel from the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service other such agencies, this will make 60.3 billion roubles in 2011-2013," the prime minister said.
He also promised to provide all servicemen who were dismissed from the Armed Forces with housing next year. To this end, the government has reserved over 36 billion roubles for flats for more than 20,000 former military servicemen who did not receive the housing they are entitled to by law.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it would build or buy 52,000 flats in 2010.
"The Russian Defence Ministry plans to buy or buy 52,000 flats by the end of 2010," the head of the ministry's department of capital construction, Yuri Sanakov, said earlier.
The Defence Ministry buys two-room and three-room flats on the basis of 18 square metres per person as required by the law on the status of military servicemen.
Medvedev said better life of army servicemen was a guarantee of the successful army and navy overhaul.
"A vital condition of successful modernisation of the Armed Forces is the improvement of life of military servicemen, and the existing system of incentives for the military: already gives positive results," Medvedev said earlier.
"We are doing everything necessary to provide housing to all military servicemen who need it this year. I personally oversee this issue," the president said.
"The question of Defence Ministry housing for military officers will be solved by the end of 2012. I am confident that these guarantees will improve the well-being of your families and raise the prestige of military service in general," he said.