Izvestia: “Izvestia’s forecast for 2010”
You are bound to take this issue with you to 2010. In the morning of the last day of the outgoing year, the readers will look through the newspaper and put it aside. All of us are too busy on December 31.
We have to do everything we have planned before the President greets the nation and the clock strikes midnight.
In the languor of New Year celebrations, you will take up this issue again and see our forecast for 2010.
The 65th anniversary of the Great Victory will make it unforgettable. It will also be special because the Year of the Teacher starts on January 1.
This will be the year of the Tiger-an unpredictable beast-but there are many grounds for optimism after the holidays. Russia will hold to a rational line in politics, the economy, and the social sphere. The government will do much for improving living standards despite the crisis, which we all wish so much to leave behind us.
We are now congratulating each other. It is a pity that we are sending SMS or e-mail messages more often than not. It is convenient and modern, but technology cannot replace the warmth of a human voice.
After the holidays, we will work to make 2010 a happy year. After all, we cannot charge the Tiger with the job.
It is never possible to predict what will happen in the coming year, but there are events that will determine the next 12 months. Izvestia offers its version of expectations for 2010.
* * *
All army servicemen must receive flats
The Defence Ministry has promised to provide flats for all officers who do not have them by the end of 2010. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised that those of them who have two or more children will be granted additional square meters.
It will not be easy to fulfill this promise in full despite massive funding. The ministry buys flats at the municipal housing price, which is below the market. This is why not all developers who have the right to take part in this programme have joined it.
Moreover, long as it is, the list of those who need flats is growing in parallel with the reduction of the armed forces' personnel. Some 37,000 servicemen retired this year alone. Now they are entitled to permanent housing. For the time being, the ministry failed to fulfill this year's plan. It bought only 28,000 out of the planned 45,000 flats. Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that the ministry has flats, but not all of them have been properly registered yet.
At the same time, the ministry's State Secretary, Nikolai Pankov, admitted that the implementation of the programme will have to be delayed because of these difficulties. General Vladimir Filippov, the head of the accommodation department, was dismissed from service as a result. According to unofficial data, Filippov was fired for serious failures in implementing the programme for the provision of flats for army servicemen.
By Alexandra Grigoryeva, Yekaterina Latysheva, Alexander Litovkin, Dmitry Yusin
