MOSCOW. April 1 (Interfax-AVN) - The government commission on social security of servicemen will hold a session in late May to consider results of a survey of servicemen's social situation held in 2001, the Ministry of Labor and Social Development said on Monday.
Monday is the deadline for law-enforcement agencies for submitting data obtained in the course of the survey to the ministry. "We forecast a drastic decline of servicemen's social status in comparison with the previous survey," a spokesman for the ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency.
The monitoring of social and economic situation of servicemen, retired servicemen and their family members has been held for three years. According to the spokesman, "results of the monitoring mark a new decline in the social status of the military." The real income of an average serviceman's family fell 15.4 percent in 2002, while the nominal monthly wages of an average worker grew by 24 percent.