ST.PETERSBURG. July 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defense Ministry will allocate substantial funds for the development of the Military Medical Academy in the next five years, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Thursday.
"The goal of my visit to the Military Medical Academy is to discuss prospects of its development for the next four to five years, not only to study the establishment. The state and the Defense Ministry allocate substantial funds for capital construction of the academy's facilities, not only for the development of its scientific base, procurement of new equipment and medicines," Ivanov said.
This is done "to make both patients and doctors feel comfortable," he noted.
The minister described the academy as "a unique establishment, not only for the military, but for general medicine as well."
"This is Russia's oldest medical establishment," he said.
Ivanov is accompanied on his visit to the academy by President Vladimir Putin's envoy to the Northwestern federal district Valentina Matviyenko.
The Military Medical Academy is Russia's oldest military and medical educational establishment. It was founded in the beginning of the 18th century. The academy currently trains heads of medical service for Armed Forces units, Navy vessels and other federal law-enforcement agencies.