VORONEZH, South-Western European Russia, February 7 (AVN) - The construction of a 72-flat house for officers of the Western regional border guard department started in the Pridonsky village of the Voronezh region, a spokesman for the department told the Military News Agency on Wednesday.
More than 580 border guard families suffer from lack of houses and need to improve their living conditions, the spokesman said. The Russian border guard troops have more than 10,000 servicemen and their families lacking own flats and about 3,300 families need to improve their living conditions.
The federal 2001 budget allocates RUR11.94bn (USD419.2m) for the needs of border guards, but this does not solve the problem. The housing problem is likely to become even more acute due to the upcoming border guard reform, as it envisages the Federal Border Guard Service reduction down to 186,000 servicemen and 14,500 civilians by 2006.