Penza, 25 October 2015. PenzaNews. The Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade has prepared a draft presidential decree on canceling the closed city status of Zarechny of the Penza region.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

At present, the draft undergoes a public review stage that lasts from October 23 to November 6.

The public review is accompanied by an independent graft prevention inspection that will conclude by October 29.

The draft provides for lifting the closed city status on January 1, 2016.

The Russian government, together with the Penza region government, will be tasked to conduct the necessary management measures related to this decision within a period of 9 months.

As a result, if the draft passes, the Presidential decree No. 1209 “Concerning Approval of Borders of the Closed City Unit – Zarechny City of the Penza Region” dated June 30 2000 will be declared null and void.

According to draft notes, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade was instructed to analyze the suggestion from the Ministry of Finance to lift the closed city status in Zvezdny of the Perm region and Lokomotivny of the Chelyabinsk region, following the August 15 and August 19, 2015, instructions of the Russian government to optimize budgetary expenses and the numbers of closed administrative units.

In compliance with Article 1 of the August 21, 2015, Russian government instruction, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Roskosmos, and Rosatom, reported no cases requiring to remove an existing closed administrative unit or transform one that are related to the absence (halt) of national security and defense related factories or facilities located therein that require special security measures and classified information protection systems.

However, based on the information provided by the Russian Ministry of Finance during the 2012 Regional Development Ministry analysis of current and scheduled safety and security related measures in closed administrative units in 2012-2017, the responsible authorities concluded that several closed cities could lose their status during the optimization procedure. This list includes Zvezdny of the Perm Krai and Lokomotivny of the Chelyabinsk region for the Russian Ministry of Defense; and Novouralsk of the Sverdlovsk region, Zelenogorsk of the Krasnodar Krai, Seversk of the Tomsk region and Zarechny of the Penza region for Rosatom.

Taking the aforementioned data into account, following the August 15 and August 19, 2015, instructions from the Russian government, and in accordance with the law No. 3297-1 titled “On Closed Administrative-Territorial Units,” dated July 14 1992, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade prepared the draft of the presidential decree titled “On Lifting the Status of Closed Administrative Territorial Unit for Zarechny City of the Penza Region” that provides for termination of Zarechny closed city as a standalone administrative unit as of January 1, 2016.