All new Russian real estate developments will be required to provide disabled access from July 1 this year, the Housing Ministry said.
Last December — after 5 years work — the ministry agreed a set of rules titled "Access to buildings and structures for population groups with restricted mobility," Deputy Housing Minister Yelena Sierra was quoted as saying on the ministry's website.
During the document's gestation period no one enforced access requirements, but "From July. 1, 2015, state and non-state entities will not consider projects that do not conform to the standards," Sierra said.
Construction has boomed in Russia over the last two decades but is expected to slow this year as a recession and climbing lending rates depress the market.
