Shevtsova Holds the Military Housing Portfolio
Yesterday a number of media sources picked up an Interfaks story in which a Defense Ministry source alleges the military’s program of permanent housing construction for servicemen has broken down because a whopping 78,000 new apartments remain unoccupied.
Yes, that’s not 33,000 as announced a couple weeks ago, but a reported 78,000.
Moreover, the Interfaks source says 30,000 service apartments are currently in a dilapidated condition.
The source concludes:
“It’s possible to state that the program to provide service housing to servicemen before the end of 2012 will collapse.”
The Interfaks interlocutor adds that inside the Defense Ministry they’re currently trying to determine who’s to blame for the housing mess.
Actually, the service housing deadline is now the end of 2013 according to Prime Minister Putin. The permanent apartment suspense is the end of 2012. But perhaps these are mere details. The larger point is that the entire effort to furnish servicemen — active and retired — with apartments owed them under the law looks like it’s set to fail next year.
On the heels of yesterday’s very significant stat, Deputy Defense Minister Tatyana Shevtsova talked to ITAR-TASS today about putting off permanent apartments for servicemen and retirees until 2013. She also said the 134,000 apartments (that both Putin and Defense Minister Serdyukov have cited) acquired between 2009 and 2011 is actually 116,000 plus 18,000 to be acquired in the next three days (by the end of 2011)!
Bottom line: The political leadership’s 2010 and 2012 military housing promises weren’t kept. The 2012 and 2013 promises can’t be kept given severe problems with apartments already built and rejected by military men. In sum, the military apartment imbroglio may introduce its share of complications into Prime Minister Putin’s plan to return to the Kremlin in the spring.
Russian Defense Policy 