MOSCOW. Feb 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The current system of accommodation of military servicemen is beyond the means of the state and does not enable it to solve the problem, Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the defense and security committee of the Federation Council upper house of Russian parliament, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
"The current system of accommodation of military servicemen with housing certificates and housing subsidies has got beyond the means of the state and wants critical improvement. Now it takes retired military servicemen six to seven years instead of legally provisioned three months to get full housing after service quarters," he said.
According to Ozerov, the committee thinks it is necessary to develop a unified housing program for military servicemen in all relevant state bodies for up to 2010 and amend the corresponding legislation. "This program should also include accumulative housing system with individual accumulative accounts for each serviceperson," he emphasized.
Ozerov also said that the committee was to hold a roundtable discussion on Thursday on the outlooks for transfer to the accumulative housing system in 2004. "This meeting will involve representatives of the Russian government, Defense Ministry, and law-enforcement agencies. They will try to discuss all aspects of this hard social problem of the Armed Forces," he said.