23 february 2011

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin tours the Severny residential district in Kaliningrad, which is being developed for Baltic Fleet officers

Prime Minister Putin, accompanied by Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov and Commander of the Baltic Fleet Viktor Chirkov, dropped in at a flat in a new 17-story block building on Chelnokov Street., which Colonel Yury Popov of the Baltic Fleet and his family received the four-bedroom flat, which is 92 square metres, last Saturday.

The Popovs told the prime minister that they plan to move into their new four-bedroomthe new flat by summer. Popov's younger daughter, Nastya, 9, will study at a new school in this subdistrict residential district starting in September. His elder daughter, Kristina, a police lieutenant, is celebrating her 23rd birthday today, on the Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland Day. The prime minister congratulated Kristina and presented the Popovs with a laptop and a certificate for a washing machine.

Talking with the Popovs, Prime Minister Putin noted that over 100,000 flats have been built and transferred to officers across the country in the past two years.

During his tour of Severny, the prime minister also looked over the subdistrict's development plan for the residential district and similar plans for residential quarters areas in military towns of in the Kaliningrad Region.

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In one of the courtyards, Prime Minister Putin spoke with locals who told him about the pluses and minuses of the new housing, in particular complaining about traffic jams at the drive outexit of the subdistrictresidential district. Kaliningrad Region Governor Nikolai Tsukanov promised to resolve this issue adding that over next year three billion roubles will be invested in the district's infrastructure.