Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has asked Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to increase budget expenditures on housing for the military fourfold to over $12 billion, the Kommersant business daily reported on Monday.
In 2011, President Dmitry Medvedev gave instructions to provide most members of the military with permanent housing by 2014.
According to Kommersant, Serdyukov’s calculations, voiced in his letter to Siluanov, stipulate that expenditures on permanent and temporary housing for Defense Ministry servicemen in 2012-2014 should grow to 366.7 billion rubles [$12.4 billion] from 94.5 billion rubles [$3.2 bln].
The Defense and Finance ministries have not yet officially commented on Serdyukov’s letter.
But a Finance Ministry official said his ministry would seek to cut the additional expenditures.
