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Presidential spokesman denies extra benefits to government employees

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained to the journalists that this is out of the question

ASTANA, March 20. /TASS/. A Kremlin source has confirmed that government employees have been given no extra benefits in medical service.

"It is out of the question," Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday, challenging a number of media outlets which said the government employees were allegedly given new benefits. "It was a wrong interpretation of the presidential decree, which has a technical character only because it has brought the existing order of distributing benefits in line with the law. No additional benefits for government employees. It is out of the questions," Peskov said. He mentioned 10 billion rubles in the alleged expenditures on additional benefits to government employees as a few media outlets claimed. Peskov has denied plans to increase benefits, "to say nothing of 10 billion rubles imagined by some media outlets."

Earlier on Friday Viktor Khrekov, spokesman for the presidential property management department, assured that the government employees and deputies had been given no new benefits in medical service. "The presidential decree signed this week pertains to the organization of medical assistance to government employees and parliamentarians. The decree merely streamlines the use of budgetary funds and funds provided through the compulsory medical insurance system for a contingent of some 100-150 patients serviced by medical establishments of the Presidential property management department," Khrekov said. These patients are incapacitated people, participants in war battles, people who eliminated the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident — in short, the patients who are entitled to benefits by law, Khrekov explained.