Vladimir Putin Visited The Lefortovo Military Cantonment In Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday visited the Lefortovo military cantonment in the eastern district of Moscow. As RIA Novosti correspondent reports, the head of the Russian state was acquainted with restoration work there. The guard of honour welcomed the Supreme Commander-in-Chief who was accompanied by Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov and Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin. Vladimir Putin inspected the barracks in which, after restoration, the soldiers of the Moscow Commandant Regiment will live, visited classrooms, the library, the room for officers's assemblies and the cinema. Sergei Ivanov said that the restoration work had been done at a high level."If all barracks are in such a good condition it will be much easier to go over to a contract system all over the country," said the Defence Minister. Lefortovo is a historical district on the bank of the Yauza River which started to be developed at the beginning of the 18th century. There was a palace, surrounded with a regular park, there. In the 18th century, the Lefortovo soldiers' settlement had sixteen blocks of wooden houses. At the time of Emperor Paul I, the Catherine Palace in Lefortovo was turned into barracks. The military cantonment was built in 1834. Traditionally military men lived there. The third cadets corps of Emperor Alexander II was also located there. In the years of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 reserves for the army were trained there.