As foreigners confront Moscow's "spiraling crime rate, UPDK is responding to make their dwellings more secure.


The state administration that handles housing for foreigners, UPDK is hiring more guards, installing electronic security systems and tightening up access to parking lots.


The new measures are being implemented at about half a dozen of the 56 buildings that UPDK manages, said an official in charge of the matter.


The most notable improvements are occurring at the dipkorpus at 7 Korovy Val, near Dobryninskaya metro. By Oct. 15, uniformed private guards will be posted at all eight of the building's entrances 24 hours a day and a sentry with a guard dog will patrol the building's periphery at night, said Sergei Butsky, manager of Serious Limited, a new joint-venture company created by UPDK.


"I asked for the guards many times "because there were a lot of crimes here", Butsky said. The company is hiring 25 guards for the extra security, at no charge to the residents, he said.


In the past, one officer guarded the 250-meter long parking lot for the building, which contains 230 flats and offices for 25 firms, mostly foreign airlines. There have been several instances of vandalism, thefts from parked cars and crimes inside the building this year, Butsky said.


The extra security came on the heels of the installation of a new paid parking lot that drew criticism from about half of the building's tenants in August, who believed they should not have to pay extra in addition to their annual rent of $25, 000 to $30, 000.


Butsky said that his company will


soon begin providing similar services for the large UPDK building on Oktyabrskaya Ploshchad occupied by 147 foreigners and the Children's Library.


Also, a guarded, secure paid parking lot is planned for the dipkorpus at 7A Simferopolskaya Ulitsa, said Tatyana Bubyovskaya, first deputy of UPDK's department of property.


New security systems will be installed at buildings at 3 Mytnaya Ulitsa, 4 Vishnyakovsky Pereulok, 18 Donskaya Ulitsa and 93 Prospekt Vernadskogo, she said.


While many foreigners are pleased with the increased security, Vincent Cabanne, who circulated the Korovy-Val protest petition, said it gave the wrong picture to Russians.