Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg Vladimir Kritskiy and acting Deputy Head of Sverdlovsk Region’s Department of Internal Affairs Galina Karabonalova coordinated a briefing on the housing problems of law-enforcement officers.

‘A tender was held in July 2004 to decide who was going to put up the apartment block in Bazoviy Lane meant for our officers. The land allotment belongs to Yekaterinburg’s Department of Internal Affairs; as for the builder, Mayak Corporation was chosen. The developer promised to put up four apartment buildings with the total area of at least 52,000 square meters. 25% of housing (13,158.9 square meters) were supposed to be given to the officers. The remaining 75% could be used by the developer as they saw fit. The apartment buildings have been nearly completed by now and have already been registered as 48, 50, 52, and 54 Bazoviy Lane. However, some extra 8,000 square meters of non-living premises appeared at the expense of the officers’ future dwellings’ area,’ Kritskiy said.

‘The residential premises’ total area now comes to about 44,000 square meters, so Mayak says they can provide 11,000 square meters (not the 13,158.9 square meters) to the city council. Yekaterinburg municipal council intends to allocate these dwellings to the local law-enforcement officers, which is why it cannot afford to compromise and insists on Mayak meeting its contractual obligations. We must get 13,158.9 square meters of housing for our officers,’ he stated.