MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Construction of housing for the Russian Defense Ministry is mostly handled by civilian organizations on the basis of competitions, Lieutenant General Anatoly Grebenyuk, chief of the Armed Forces construction and quartering department and deputy defense minister, said on Wednesday.
"Construction of housing in the Defense Ministry's interests is mostly handled by civilian construction organizations, and the volume of this construction will continue growing," Grebenyuk told a news briefing at the ministry.
He explained that this is done to allow the military construction industry to concentrate on the restoration and development of Russia's military infrastructure.
"The largest projects in the framework of national military infrastructure restoration are the following: the proving range at the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, the Plesetsk cosmodrome, and infrastructure for Strategic Missile Forces regiments armed with Topol-M intercontinental missile systems. Moreover, a lot of attention is paid to the accommodation of the 42nd motorized rifle division stationed in Chechnya on a permanent basis, as well as to the accommodation of the country's new borders," Grebenyuk said.
About 170,000 servicemen with the Russian Armed Forces have no housing of their own or need improvement of their housing conditions, the general went on. "95,000 families of servicemen do not have housing of their own at all," he stressed, saying that the Defense Ministry's main efforts are focused on providing the servicemen with apartments.
According to Grebenyuk, the State Housing Certificates Program plays an important role in solving the problem.
"The Armed Forces obtained a total of 29,000 flats from all sources last year, and we are expecting to receive 25,000 flats this year," Grebenyuk said.