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Housing to be provided for all retired officers in year

The Defence Ministry successfully copes with the task set by the Russian president, he noted

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, September 22 (Itar-Tass) —— Housing will be provided for all the retired officers by the end of 2013, Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Saturday.

The Defence Ministry successfully copes with the task set by the Russian president, he noted.

"At least, we have time left," he said.

There were 54,000 servicemen who needed housing at the beginning of 2012, and 33,000 remain at present. They will number 21,000 by the end of this year.

Serdyukov said during the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi on Friday that they expected that there would be no servicemen on a list waiting for housing by the first half of 2013.

The work must be completed in full in late 2012 or early 2013, he believes.

The president noted that attention should be paid to sufficient financing to settle the problem and that excessive bureaucracy should be removed. The president said that he had already asked to open additional offices to formalize documents for servicemen to receive housing.

Serdyukov said that 37 additional offices were opened and the list of documents to be presented by servicemen was shortened. The appropriate services are asked to find out whether a serviceman has any real estate. State services prepare most of the documents, and it speeds up the process, he noted. According to him, 1,650 flats a week are provided for servicemen. If it is not slowed, the work is expected to be completed by the end of the year, he said.