On August, 12, a series of single pickets were held on Tverskaya street by the tenants who have been evicted by Moscow city authorities. They insist that thousand of tenants have had their housing simply taken away from them.

Darya Kirillova, a female tenant of a house located on Simferopolsky boulevard, told journalists that violations perpetrated by the ‘’civil servants’’ have been denounced at the protest action.

Pickets on Tverskaya Street

‘’We have to stand united for our houses: medical personnel from house 19, Simferopolsky boulevard, teachers living in house 11, Natalya Kovshova street, construction workers, house 17, Stavropolskaya street, and many other Muscovites that have found themselves being exposed to harassment on behalf of the local authorities. Thousand medical personnel, teachers and aviation engineers and construction workers are being evicted all over Moscow.

According to the information given by her, following various housing programs covering teachers and medical personnel engaged in state budget run companies, at least seven thousand people were given social tenancy housing some years ago.

However, those social tenancy agreements are being annulled. The tenants of the house located in Simferopolsky Boulevard have seen their tenancy agreements terminated with the tenants having been stripped of their rights for privatization of the apartments. The tenants had a meeting on August, 14, with Sergey Sobyanin, Moscow City Mayor, who instructed, following the meeting, that the tenants were to be provided with new housing.

On paper, the tenants have been given new apartments, bigger ones than the ones used by the tenants earlier, but no documents for their tenancy have been issued. Due to this, the tenants of the house have been unable for two years to move into their new apartments without being entitled for their old ones at the same time. These pretty simple manipulations with legal documents made at least 88 tenant families, medical personnel, homeless.

The house 17 on Stavropolskaya Street is occupied by construction workers. This is a dormitory of the ‘’corridor’’ type. They built this house through their own effort, as they also had built the Moscow ring highway, Gostiny Dvor trade center and other major construction sites.

Now these people are exposed to evictions.

A similar story – the tenants are said to have been resettled on paper, with the house having been given the status of untenable. And the Property Department of the City Government, jointly with the Rossproperty Agency, rushed into transferring ownership for the house to another company, which initiated legal actions in order to evict the tenants.

The teachers and doctors living in a nine story house No.11 located on Natalya Koshevaya Street are also being evicted. The tenants living in house 109, Lyublinskaya Street, 1A in Warsaw Driveway have been devoid of electricity power and water supply for two years, they haven’t been provided with other communal services.

Similar problems are challenging tenants of more than twenty former dormitories of Moscow.

The tenants have been denied information on the addresses of their new apartments. This seems to be the gravest violation on the part of the Moscow property Department.

The tenants are unaware of where the new housing due to them is located.

There has been a special ordinance No. 534—РП issued by Moscow City Government which made the data of the Act on New Housing secrete!

This document, which has the addresses of the tenants’ new apartments, has been dubbed as ‘’for official use only’’ and is not provided to the tenants when they require so.

The tenants should have been relocated to their new apartments long ago, gotten registered and submitted their documents for privatization.

But they have been left without any residential permits, which in today’s Russia means that they are not entitled to any services and rights secured by the state – the tenants are unable to provide kinder gardens for their kids, are not eligible to vote at election campaigns etc..

All this makes the tenants stand up for their rights. On August, 7, the tenants held a meeting on Kransnopresnenskaya Zastava Square and have been circulating information on the scam and fraud with their housing.

The protest action held on August, 12, involved initiative groups of the tenants living in fifteen Moscow residential houses.

The protest participants extended their ranks from Tverskaya Street to Okhotny Ryad Street  in a series of single pickets positioning themselves every 50 meters, which under the Russian laws don’t require police permit.

The placards they were holding updated on the tenants’ and their housing’ history.

The tenants demanded that those responsible for the machinations with their housing be held responsible and the housing due to the tenants be secured.

They also demanded that all this legal mayhem and lawlessness be stopped.