The head of the Russian Ministry of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov announced a reduction in the number of garrison military camps from 21,000 to 184. The military camps existed separately from the entire state - they were financed by the ministry. Over the past twenty years, the Ministry of Defense has done this very disgustingly: the housing stock has not been repaired, the military townships have become leaders in terms of the number of unusable housing. Now the government has transferred this headache to the municipalities, but did not provide them with funds to solve this problem. Moreover, even in those rare cases when municipalities can do something, then due to the fact that the transfer of property is not documented, they are powerless.
Military towns are not in vain located "far from civilization." They were built in such a way in case of war that the enemy could not find military units (in addition, it is not easy to maintain military discipline in a civilian city). With the beginning of perestroika, most of the military units were reorganized or liquidated, but the facilities surrounding them, by habit, retained the status of military towns. In such settlements, there are no weapons and military equipment, and the population for the most part has become civilian. At present, such objects are not similar to the military towns of the past, where almost all men wore uniforms, and all organizations (up to cinemas, hotels and shops) were subject to military regulations.
The quartering and accommodation service of the Ministry of Defense (SRiO), which was obliged to deal with the issues of the military towns, was carried away by other tasks. All the work of the SRiO turned out to be aimed at achieving the so-called. strategic goals, including: the restoration of Chechnya, the formation of the infrastructure of the Plesetsk cosmodrome. R&D ignored everyday issues, high-profile projects became priorities for the Service. One cannot become famous for supporting military townships. After all, it goes without saying by default …
Former employee of the SRiO, lieutenant colonel in reserve Alexander Perendzhiev, says that as soon as A. Serdyukov came to the post of defense minister, he began to loop over all financial issues in military development. According to Perendzhiev, this is seen as a criminal subtext. It was at that time that Colonel-General Viktor Vlasov, who was acting head of the SRiO, shot himself.
At the same time, the process of complete elimination of the military-construction complex began. The specialists left, the apparatus was destroyed. It is now impossible to understand the problems of military camps: almost all the documentation has been lost due to the fact that the institutes that designed the camps have been disbanded. The Ministry of Defense does not keep specialists capable of dealing with military townships, therefore, there is simply no one to solve these issues. In addition, the officer says, the efforts of the construction complex of the Ministry of Defense go to fight with the mayors of Moscow for objects. And then there is no time for the military towns. The fact that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation threw them off itself is quite natural, and everything went to this.
Today the military camps are in a deplorable state. The health and education situation is dire. Housing and communal services have become impoverished to the point that boiler houses fail. There is simply no work, and people turn into semi-homeless, says A. Perendzhiev.
The best way out of this situation, according to the lieutenant colonel, is the resettlement of military camps, and not their restoration. People need to be provided with housing in normal settlements. The state has funds for this, because they have built new housing for the victims of summer forest fires.
The public organization "Defend the Fatherland" also condemns the current policy of the Ministry of Defense. Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Zudov, co-chairman of the organization, says the position of the Russian Defense Ministry is unethical. At first, the ministry did not fulfill its responsibilities in relation to the military towns, and now it has completely abandoned responsibility. In his opinion, before giving military property to the municipalities, it was necessary to put it in order. Or it was necessary to renounce military camps as army units were eliminated in them. With such an approach, this would happen gradually, and now there would be no need to puzzle over where to get money at once to restore the entire infrastructure of the former military camps.
The ministry is even irresponsible in shifting responsibility for the military townships. It does not draw up documents and thus delays the transfer of military property to the local authorities. As a result, local authorities remain paralyzed. For example, the officer says, in Stupino near Moscow, the land that is under the unfinished construction of the ministry will not be transferred to the ownership of the municipality. Local authorities, due to the fact that the land is not in city ownership, do not have the right to start completion. Law enforcement agencies may recognize these costs as inappropriate, and employees of the local municipality may be held liable, including criminal.
The way the Defense Ministry behaves is a natural bungling, says State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov. In his words, since the Ministry of Defense is dumping ballast from itself, so it should do it competently. Even the smallest legal policy is absent in their actions. The actions of the ministry are hasty, ill-considered and destructive. In addition, the elements of profit cannot be completely ruled out. Residents of military camps, which have modern sports facilities and swimming pools, are expressing concern about the visits of salesmen visiting the property. The military is afraid that the Ministry of Defense has built such facilities with the aim of selling them.
In addition, not a single program document indicates the problem of voengorodoks and the ways to resolve it. As if the problem doesn't exist. The State Duma does not consider this problem, while the government does not make any decisions. The current situation requires intervention from the top leadership of the state.
