'The ever-increasing housing prices are actually an indicator of development,’ Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who supervises most national projects, announced at a press briefing in Kaliningrad.

'The root of the problem lies in the people’s incomes and in the availability of financial mechanisms that allow most of the modern world to handle housing problems. One needs to be able to get enough money to invest in a place to live, either through a mortgage (as is the case in most countries) or something similar to it,’ Mr. Medvedev said.

In the meantime, the enormous, avalanche-like growth of housing prices in a number of Russian regions has already led to housing becoming absolutely unaffordable for the overwhelming majority of people. Thus the price growth is believed to be the primary culprit to blame for the national housing project’s failure.