Russian Defense Ministry says it fights abuse of armed forces properties
MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's Defense Ministry said law enforcement agencies and courts are helping it protect its "property rights to the use of federal real estate, land plots and forests situated on lands assigned for defense and security purposes."
"Stricter measures in 2014 in defending the property rights of the Russian Ministry of Defense followed an analysis of the findings of on-site inspections in 2013 by the Property Relations Department of the Ministry of Defense. Altogether, land plots with a total area of more than 400,000 hectares and 4,700 items of real estate were checked," the ministry said in a statement transmitted to Interfax-AVN on Monday.
"It was found out that buildings and rooms with a total floor space of more than 18,850 square meters and land plots with a total area of more than 7,000 hectares were being abused in various ways by third parties," it said.
Earlier reports said the ministry found out more than 13,000 unregistered properties in large-scale inspections of armed forces property last year. By the end of 2013, there were more than 487,000 properties on the armed forces property register.