MOSCOW. Sept 14 (Interfax) - All Russian military personnel, both personnel on active duty and retired, have received one-time payments of 15,000 or 10,000 rubles, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"The payments are complete, of which I hereby report," Shoigu said at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the government and United Russia party members on Tuesday.
"Every member of the Armed Forces, including cadets doing service, had been paid 15,000 rubles by August 31 of the current year. Likewise, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin], pursuant to your decree of August 24 on a one-off monetary payment to certain groups of pensioners, pensioners of the Armed Forces of the Defense Ministry have each been paid 10,000 rubles as a lump sum," Shoigu said.
Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said earlier that the total budget for payments to military personnel and pensioners would be around 500 billion rubles.
The president ordered the extra pay due to the inflation rate being higher than expected because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Shoigu said on August 29.