MOSCOW, July 2 (Itar-Tass) - The decision to enlarge the territory of Moscow entered in legal force on Sunday. On this day Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin held a meeting with the heads of the municipal entities, which were attached to the Russian capital, and was seeking to talk new Muscovites into the fact that this decision is correct, pledging that all parties – the Russian capital and the Moscow Region will benefit from it.
The Russian capital was enlarged 2.4 times, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily recalled. The Moscow territory increased from 1,070 to 2,510 square kilometres. This is the most large-scale expansion of the Moscow boundaries for the whole history of the city. Since July 1 the Russian capital got in the top ten biggest (in terms of territory) cities in the world. From the 31th place between Baghdad and Hong Kong Moscow went up to the sixth place between Egypt’s Alexandria and Turkey’s Ankara. In terms of its population the Russian capital was and remains in the top ten biggest cities in the world.
New Muscovites can hope for benefits, which the ‘old’ Muscovites lacked, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. In particular, all social payments will be transferred to the accounts of local benefit takers already on July 4, though usually they are transferred a week later, head of the social security department Vladimir Petrosyan said at the meeting. Sobyanin also recalled that about 77,000 from 233,000 residents of the Greater Moscow are entitled to various allowances and bonuses. “Therefore, the social security is the most important trend of our work,” the Moscow mayor noted. The Greater Moscow lacks sharply educational and medical institutions, and available institutions need repairs and additional equipment.
From ten medical institutions, which are situated on the territory attached to the Moscow City, eight were passed to Moscow, and other two institutions will be passed in next few days, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily noted. The resources needed for this step, including a 30% growth of the salary of medical workers, who work in the territories integrated in Moscow, were already envisaged in the Moscow budget. Not shelving the undertaking Moscow launched the restoration and the improvement of the highways. According to Moscow Deputy Mayor in charge of the city management sector Pyotr Biryukov, the state budget-financed institution was formed for the maintenance of the highways passed to the capital and will maintain 680 kilometres of 1,500 kilometres of current highways. The authorities are to cover 600 kilometres of rural roads, mostly ground roads, with asphalt gravel by September. This asphalt gravel was made of the covering removed from the Moscow highways during their overhaul. “But this is a temporary measure. No settlement within the Moscow boundaries should be left without a driveway,” Biryukov pointed out.