Thousands protest against Moscow government housing resettlement plan

Record ID: 877034

  • Title: Thousands protest against Moscow government housing resettlement plan
  • Date: 28th May 2017
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 28, 2017) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER READING (Russian) "(MOSCOW MAYOR) SOBYANIN SHOULD RESIGN" POSTERS READING (Russian) "STOP DEFACING MOSCOW", "AKADEMICHESKY DISTRICT IS AGAINST RENOVATION" PROTESTERS VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS WALKING DOWN THE STREET POLICE PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER ERADING: "(MOSCOW MAYOR) SOBYANIN SHOULD RESIGN" (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) PROTESTER, YELENA SHTYPENKO, SAYING: "We have a Stalin-era brick house in a good condition. I don't understand why they are doing it. Resettle those people who live in dilapidated houses, there are many of those in Moscow, we are not against it. But we have a good strong house, don't waste money on us. And also, if Moscow for its needs has to move me out of my house - negotiate it with me, don't just adopt idiotic laws which violate all my rights." PROTESTERS ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) PROTESTER, MARIA, SAYING: "(I am here) Because I want (Moscow Mayor Sergei) Sobyanin to resign, because what's he had been doing over the past years is against Muscovites. Muscovites are against him." PROTESTERS HOLDING POSTERS READING (LARGE ONE) "PRESNYA (MOSCOW DISTRICT) IS AGAINST RENOVATION" AND "FOR MOTHERLAND FOR STALIN-ERA HOUSES" (REPHRASED WWII SLOGAN "FOR MOTHERLAND, FOR STALIN") PROTESTERS IN STREET
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2017 15:52
  • Keywords: protest Moscow government resettlement plan Russia
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • City: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016IR55XJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: About 5,000 Muscovites took part in a protest rally in the Russian capital on Sunday (May 28) against government plans to resettle millions of citizens from Soviet-era apartment blocks.
    The draft law on renovation envisages moving some Muscovites into modern flats from the so-called "khrushchevki", mass-produced cheap, prefabricated houses built in the 1950s and named after the USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev, whose initiative was to accommodate millions of people who had been living in overcrowded communal flats and even in cellars and dugouts dating from World War Two.
    But some of the protesters said their current houses, which the city government says should be destroyed, are in a good shape and had been recently renovated.
    Many protesters carried signs demanding resignation of the Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
    Many Muscovites living in "khrushchevki" are concerned about the location and quality of the planned new accommodation, a lack of services and infrastructure and about threats the redevelopment may pose to the historic face of the Russian capital.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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