MOSCOW. Jan 13 (Interfax-AVN) - Military prosecutor's offices of military districts and garrisons held over 1,150 checks of compliance with land-utilization legislation in 2001- 2002, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax- Military News Agency on Monday.
"Over 1,500 violations of laws, including some 70 illegitimate legal acts, were exposed" during the checks, the source said.
"Over 270 reports, notifications and protests were submitted to inspected ministries and agencies and local prosecutors, and over 250 officials were brought to justice as a result of the checks," the source said.
According to him, general and arbitration courts "recovered over RUB2m (USD62,853) of damages and seized 10,000 hectares of military-purpose land from illegal owners " to protect state interests in accordance with claims filed by military prosecutors. The source stressed that the growth in the number of attempts at seizure of lands utilized by law-enforcement agencies is related with a considerable growth of their cost under market economy conditions, expansion of owners' and land users' rights related to buying and selling land, as well as streamlining of land privatization order.
"At the same time, we have to take into account that the area used for defense and security purposes is very large, the Defense Ministry alone used some 15 million hectares," the source added.