"The 27th division is a good, strong division having rich and glorious history, but no less important is the fact that in the recent years this division has been part of level readiness units and engaged in combat training", said the minister.
According to him, he discussed the status of social affairs with the division commander.
The minister pointed out that problems still remained. According to him, 294 service members are not provided with housing, while over 2,000 persons, who have lost any link with the Armed Forces, reside in the garrison.
"It is obvious that here the housing certificates should be used more actively in order to force out those, who have lost any link to the Armed Forces, and provide the flats as service housing to young officers", said the defense minister.
"This year jointly with the Finance Ministry we managed to reshuffle this year's budget and direct additional two billion rubles ($1 is 29 rubles) to building service housing, which will certainly help young officers feel better joining the Armed Forces", said Sergei Ivanov.
The Russian Defense Ministry will have repaid the fuel and energy debts by the end of the year, said the minister.
"By the end of the year we will have repaid these debts at the expense of the two billion rubles that other security agencies owe to the Defense Ministry", said Mr. Ivanov.
"The main thing is that this is repaid, and we will immediately transfer the money in discharge of the fuel and energy debt", he added.
The debt of the Defense Ministry's installations to only Far Eastern energy companies as of late September 2004 amounted to over 600 million rubles (about $20 million).
