Serdiukov Asked to Quadruple Military Housing Expenses

09.04.2012 Russian defense minister Anatoly Serdiukov addressed to finance minister Anton Siluanov with request to quadruple expenditures for permanent and service housing of military servicemen by 2014 (from RUR 94.5 bln to RUR 366.7 bln), writes Kommersant referring to Serdiukov's letter to Ministry of Finance sent on March 30.

Sources in finance ministry said off the record that the ministry would insist on reduction of additional financing asked by the military. However, in case of cost cutting, the president's order to settle housing problem till 2014 would be possibly frustrated, say the military experts.

Defense ministry has already spent over RUR 330 bln for that purpose through recent four years, points out Kommersant in its turn. The accommodation problem has not been resolved though.

It should be noted that defense ministry claims for raising of expenditures against the background of numerous scandals. Late in March, the head of Housing Department Olga Kharchenko was fired. She had been providing the military with housing since July 2011 and was the third director of the department through the recent year.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin repeatedly criticized defense ministry for slow progress in settling of the accommodation problem.

Interfax reported late Dec 2011 citing an undisclosed insider that the housing provision program had been frustrated; 78,000 apartments remained unsettled because of being built beyond military units.