One and a half million Russians living in ruins
In the center of Pskov Labor street -32 just from the city’s ancient kremlin 20 it could be a prestigious address as it is located minutes away. This building, built by German prisoners of war as a warehouse in 1950, was later turned into a temporary residential building.
Despite the building’s mouldiness, cracks in its walls, water leaks from its pipes, and the residents’ complaints, officers they do not officially declare it “unfit for habitation”.
Russia According to the government, 1.6 million Russians live in 112,353 buildings declared “unfit for habitation”. It is not known how many people live in the buildings that residents say should be included in this list. This is a nationwide problem that local officials are unwilling or unable to address.
President Vladimir Putin raised this issue in a virtual meeting with government officials on November 30.
“We have talked about this continuously. We have to move people from these slums…” – he said.
Really Putin talked about this problem “continuously”. At least seven times in the past 15 years, he has instructed officials to resolve this issue.
“Oil and gas A country with so much wealth collected from its income cannot afford millions of its citizens to live in slums. – Putin 20He said in his traditional annual address in 2007. During his visit to Kalmykia in 2013, he called this issue the “main task” of the government. 2020In 2008, he ordered the officials to “close this shameful page” and try to prevent the creation of new slums.
Dangerous, collapsing housing is one of the most common issues raised by critics of the Kremlin. They say that the Kremlin should have solved this problem internally rather than attacking Ukraine and rebuilding the cities it destroyed there.
In September, Russia’s “First Channel” of construction workers from Novgorod of Ukraine He gave a report about being sent to rebuild the village of Vasilyevka, which was occupied by Russia in the Zaporozhye region.
23 years old Sofia Makhova in the Kaliningrad region, village lives in a one-story building built before World War II. He lost his parents in an accident seven years ago.
“A lot of things happened at the same time. My parents are dead, and so am I pregnant i stayed After they died, the government put their run-down house on the “uninhabitable” list. “They put me on the relocation list and I’m still there.” – he says.
Two court after her complaint, the government ordered Makhova to get a house.
“However, when I asked, they said that there was no apartment and instead they gave me a voucher.” – Makhova says.
The value of the voucher is 2.5 million rubles (40 thousand dollars). The price of a one-room apartment in a new building in Kaliningrad is 4 million rubles (63,000 rubles). dollars) is close.
“I can’t buy an apartment in Kaliningrad or Guryevsk with this money.” – Makhova emphasizes.
Igor Oleinikov Since 1989, he lived in Baltiysk, Kaliningrad region. This apartment was given to him in 1986 for his work in the Chernobyl disaster zone. In 2015, the building he lived in was included in the list of “hazardous” houses. Despite this, the residents were not relocated.
“My neighbors and I paid out of pocket to have an independent expert review it. He came and took pictures of each apartment and said that the building was unusable, it was obvious to the naked eye.” Oleinikov says.
2018In , the government commission made a decision to issue a house voucher to Oleynikova.
“I collected all my documents and gave them, but nothing happened. Now I have lost my eyesight and I can’t even go door to door to defend my rights. But I can’t call them and talk to them, it doesn’t work either. No one gives me a clear answer. They are transferred from one office to another. …I’m tired of everything”, – he says.