Penza, 27 December 2013. PenzaNews. The governor of the Penza region Vasily Bochkarev stated the need to open the borders of the closed city Zarechny as soon as possible comparing the existence of the closed administrative territorial unit in the region with post-war Berlin.

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“Now the situation is similar to East Berlin at the time,” Vasily Bochkarev said responding to the question of a journalist from the closed city of Zarechny about its future during a press conference on Friday, December 27.

“If we do not break the fence, the city will face difficult future in the market economy. Some time ago, there was opened a fruit processing factory in Zarechny with equipment costing about 5 million euros, however, now we simply cannot let the investors in the closed city. In addition, there is a problem with fruit delivery to the factory and transportation of finished products,” the governor explained.

He also noted that despite all the state investment in the infrastructure of the city, nothing can stop young people leaving Zarechny and, consequently, there will be no positive population dynamics.

“The closed city is getting older,” Vasily Bochkarev said.

According to the head of the region, the best decision is to border the secret industrial zone, which should remain closed for security reasons, and at the same time to open the whole city in order to attract investment and return young people to Zarechny.