MOSCOW. Feb 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The Defense Ministry will transfer a 1,200km-long motorway to municipal property, the government information department reported on Tuesday.
The road, located in the Saratov region, has been used by a Defense Ministry unit. The Russian government has ordered its transfer to the restricted-access town of Shikhany. The decision was proposed by Shikhany's legislature and cleared with the Defense Ministry and the Saratov region administration.
The Defense Ministry has been ordered to reimburse local budget expenses on the road's operation out of this year's federal budget allocations for the ministry's current maintenance, the report reads.
A chemical proving range was located in Shikhany for a long time. Under the Chemical Weapons Prohibition Convention, Russia abandoned production and stockpiling of chemical weapons and undertook to get rid of chemical weapons production facilities before April 2007.