Yuri Kuznetsov

The host of the St. Petersburg hour of the Liberty Live program Tatyana Valovich : Today, December 3, the International Day of the Disabled, the day when it is customary to recall the problems of people with disabilities. The European Commission, which proclaimed 2003 by the year of the disabled person, was on the fact that people with disabilities should become full citizens of their country. Russia also joined the conduct of a disabled person on its territory of the year. But are there any opportunities in Russia that the disabled is completely integrated into life and what is needed for this? We will talk about this with our guest, the president of the St. Petersburg organization of the disabled "We are together" Yuri Kuznetsov. Yuri, remind the audience very briefly, because a year ago, when the year of disabled, announced by the European commission, was just beginning, you were on the air, remind you how many years you exist, what are your main areas of work?

Yuri Kuznetsov: We will be 12 years old, the main activity of our organization is the organization of leisure for people with disabilities and the formation of a positive attitude to people with disabilities in society.

Tatyana Valovich: The European Commission, declaring 2003, the year of the disabled, proclaimed just an independent way of life and livelihood. In Russia, a disabled person is still an object of treatment, rehabilitation of all types, since the country has not reached a proper level of medical and social services, nor a sufficient amount of charity in relation to disabled people, so so far there is no need to talk about an independent lifestyle and complete integration into society. Not so long ago, the new vice-governor of the St. Petersburg government who will be responsible for social issues, Lyudmila Kostkin, said that in 2004, only 30 percent of the amount, which was originally laid down from the federal budget in 2004. This topic will continue our correspondent Dmitry execution:

Dmitry execution: the main problem of disabled people, according to the recently appointed vice-governor of St. Petersburg on social issues, Lyudmila Kostkin, the lack of sufficient financing from the federal budget.

Lyudmila Kostkina: by all almost points, the federal budget expected us to allocate less than 30 percent of the need.

Dmitry execution: These needs are simple and understandable. Phone, orthopedic shoes, tickets, transport, intercity travel, radio.

Lyudmila Kostkina: Today I can’t say that they are financed in 2004 completely.

Dmitry execution: 2003 announced the Year of the Disabled by the European Commission. The theme of the year sounds as an independent way of life and livelihood. Particular emphasis is not on the fact that the disabled person is a patient and an object of charity, for the West this is a completed stage, but on the fact that he is a full member of society. In Russia, where this year is also a disabled year, the tasks are different. Neither medical nor social services are at the proper level, the state does not provide people with disabilities with means of even to a tolerable existence. Over 647 thousand disabled people live in St. Petersburg, including the first, the most difficult, group, more than 43 thousand disabled children, almost 16 thousand people. At the same time, many social facilities designed to serve disabled people are in a deplorable state, in particular, boarding school No. 2 for veterans of World War II. Disabled people rarely can be found on the street. The city is not at all adapted for living in it with disabilities. Disabled people not only do not feel equal among other people, they cannot move in transport or get inside the vast majority of buildings. According to Lyudmila Kostkina, this is one of the most neglected problems.

Lyudmila Kostkina: This is one of the weakest places in the city. I think that we talk a lot, do little, and there is no, apparently, the mechanism to force transporters, before buying new buses, thinking about it and force cultural, education, healthcare committees, before repairing, building, not missing a single project, if there are no ramps, and so on. Today all this is missing.

Dmitry execution: you need to review the entire existing system of concern for the disabled, says Lyudmila Kostkin.

Tatyana Valovich: Yura, we met at the beginning of the year, which was proclaimed the year of the disabled, in your opinion, at least something in St. Petersburg has changed this year. For the better, let's say so?

Yuri Kuznetsov: Say, they began to talk more about us, we began to appear more in the media, well, and the infrastructure, as Lyudmila Andreevna spoke, she traveled around the city and was convinced that the work was of no land.

Tatyana Valovich: I know that on this trip you accompanied Lyudmila Kostkin. She wanted to inspect how really Petersburg buildings are adapted for the disabled. What happened during this trip.

Yuri Kuznetsov: She checked the program "Available Environment for the Disabled." 4 objects traveled around, of which if a real disabled person wants to get into one object, he can get into one object, he could theoretically get into one, and in two would not even theoretically hit. And the main leitmotif of the entire discussion that took place with members of public organizations, members of the city administration that accompanied the vice-governor: let's do at least a ray at the end of the tunnel, so enough to study, stop planning, acting, it seems that the tunnels are endless.

Tatyana Valovich: You said that theoretically you can get into any buildings, what kind of buildings in St. Petersburg are this?

Yuri Kuznetsov: It was a building of the rehabilitation center for the blind in this case, which we went around, there is one step, and even the first floor, in principle, is available. In addition, today you can still get into the Mariinsky Palace, since the old times the ramp remained there, you can get with the help of a ramp in Smolny, you can get into the Hermitage, you can get to the Russian Museum, you can get to the rehabilitation center on the Vasilyevsky Island, a new building, perhaps, and that's all

Tatyana Valovich: I know that on the eve of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova, who also inspected the Russian Museum and Hermitage, just came to how the disabled can also get there. And I know that, in my opinion, not one of the lifting mechanisms, with it, in any case, did not work.

Yuri Kuznetsov: Yes, I had to wait a very long time until they work, and the whole point is that they are extremely rare. After all, in addition, that the room and building are available inside, unfortunately, you need to get to these buildings. We somehow forget all the time that the transport problem for people with violations of the musculoskeletal system is a very important problem. No Russian museum, no theater, nothing we need, if you can’t get there. A lot is said about the problem of social taxi. Already in my memory 6 years, probably, they say. Here, Vitaly Leontyevich Mutkov, when he left Zenit to the Federation Council, said for a long time that this social taxi exists in the city. You know, it is impossible to say that this is completely not true, but this is far from what should be. Only two buses work, from 10 hours to 17, you yourself understand what they can do to such a big city.

Tatyana Valovich: That is, if a person wants to get, say, to the theater, to the concert, is it impossible?

Yuri Kuznetsov: That's all, this is impossible. And as we understand the social taxi - even with the burst, let it with some time margin, but this is for any time, do I need to go to the theater, do I need my friends for my birthday - I ordered, I came to me, I was delivered and also delivered back. How this system should work - you must think, try, because those recipes that are in European countries, they probably have not yet been completely shifted to our soil.

Tatyana Valovich: But such programs were really developed. What is missing? Financing, desires, or other thinking and a systematic approach to solving problems?

Yuri Kuznetsov: You are right, you need a different, systematic approach to solving problems, and, of course, disposable, immediately to solve the problem of social taxi at a time - this will require a lot of money. Probably, once it will have to be done, because otherwise, slowly-you can’t cut something slowly. It will always hurt. Two buses, three buses ... Yes, several organizations still have buses, but they do not work in a single system, and this still does not help the small person in any way.

Tatyana Valovich: That is, while still such a service, so that you call and was sure that you will order a taxi and you can go to a concert - for people who cannot move yourself, this is impossible?

Yuri Kuznetsov: This is impossible.

Tatyana Valovich: Yuri, the elections are nearing. I watched many programs of various parties, there are different social slogans, an increase in pensions, an increase in salary to doctors, but maybe you will correct me, but none of the parties to the first place does not take the problem of disabled people. As usual in Russia, this problem - it is obscured, well, there are no people with disabilities in Russia. Maybe I'm not right. Maybe I missed something ...

Yuri Kuznetsov: No, here you are almost right. This is not fashionable. It’s as if ashamed to talk about disabled people. Well, by the way, here, pensions are raised to everyone and they will increase the disabled. That is, here is such an approach. We are like an electorate. Here, they voted and forgot. But few people remember that there is a big problem still among blind people in our country. After all, the ballots are not printed by the Bruer system, and blind people rely only on the honesty of those people who are near them, this is also a big problem.

Tatyana Valovich: That is, in general, even civil law is violated here.

Yuri Kuznetsov: And the secret of voting.

Tatyana Valovich: And how can you somehow influence the public organization to officials, public structures, go out to them with programs, with some developments, I don’t know, to create a party to defend my interests?

Yuri Kuznetsov: We will definitely not create a party, this is a meaningless business. As for communication with government officials, we certainly communicate, try to influence them, it does not work very quickly. But the fact that here Lyudmila Andreevna went around the city and decided to see herself in fact what was done in the city, according to a particular program, this is still a step forward, because on paper everything can be fine, and the paper will endure everything.

Tatyana Valovich: We have a listener on the air.

Student: I will present, First Deputy General Director of the Sports Palace of Joint Stock Company, the people call him an ice. In addition to what was said: our palace was originally conceived and executed in such a way that people in our palace, especially with problems related to the musculoskeletal system, can always come and visit. There is a special entrance for this. For this, special elevators, toilets are provided. Therefore, I understand that all this is very little for a big city, however.

Tatyana Valovich: Thank you, you corrected us.

Yuri Kuznetsov: I apologize to you, I was repeatedly, so convenient that it just doesn’t come to my head. It was just that he himself was repeatedly, and today we will have there, so thank you very much for you.

Tatyana Valovich: Yura, you said that in the city somehow you began to talk more about the problems of disabled people. But now I was a little struck by such a good project, I thought initially - social advertising about the problems of people with disabilities. The Graud agency won the tender for creating such an advertisement, however, those posters that should be located on the streets of the city in the near future are somewhat shocking. What is worth, for example, this: “I work without getting up,” a woman is depicted in a wheelchair. ““ I’m doing the case with my eyes closed, ”a young man with a white cane is on a poster, it’s clear that it’s a blind one. Here, in your opinion, is what a social advertising should be in general so that society remembers every day that there are such people and does not turn away from them.

Yuri Kuznetsov: As for social advertising, we, of course, were already very behind this, and, probably, a little people hurried. It seems to me that today social advertising should be kinder and should cause some associations that we already have. I would have made advertisements with athletes in place of this company. After all, we have a wonderful club on strollers. We have wonderful basketball players, we have football players. You need something that people will cause some other association. And then anything can be signed. But these aesthetic pictures cause nothing but pity.

Tatyana Valovich: Yura, but this is an agency, it is to you, here you have one of these large organizations of the disabled in the city, did they not seek advice?

Yuri Kuznetsov: They turned, in all likelihood, as I understand it, to the organization of the Moscow region. Once again I can say, they, in all likelihood, hurried. It was just necessary to complete the order by some time. Maybe it was necessary to sit, think, help more. They wanted how best, but it turned out, as always, actually.

Tatyana Valovich: We have another call, you are on the air.

Student: I am a disabled person of the first group. I have an old car. Until now, until 2003, the collection from vehicles has not been taken from us. Since 2003, transport tax has been sent to us. How to understand this?

Tatyana Valovich: This is the abolition of benefits that went through so many social layers, how to really help?

Yuri Kuznetsov: We ask this question. I asked just in the summer, when Mrs. Karelova was in the city, this question and another question on auto -citizen, today there is no money in the budget, which means that we will suffer about this.

Tatyana Valovich: We have another question from the listener, you are on the air.

Student: Is it possible to organize legal assistance?

Yuri Kuznetsov: Today there is such legal assistance for disabled people, this is Krasnogvardeisky Lane, house 8. The secretary’s phone number can give: 2-45-40-01. You must connect you.

Tatyana Valovich: That is, is it free help?

Yuri Kuznetsov: Consultation is free. And in the case of processing some documents there is some kind of payment, of course, because paper, photocopy-all this is worth money.

Tatyana Valovich: Yura, more recently, I saw the provision about the competition that will be held under the auspices of the Ministry of Russia for Press Affairs. Honestly, when I read the name, I was delighted. It is called very loudly: "Social mediazov. XXI century." I thought that since the problem of people who are somehow infringed on in their physical parameters is one of the most socially significant for Russia, it will be affected there, but, unfortunately, there is not a word about it in the regulations about the competition. What do you think is not such a situation symptomatic for Russia?

Yuri Kuznetsov: They forgot again. But today, December 3, everyone will remember us, and to such an extent, it is sweet to suction. We will come in place with today's memories just until December 3.

Tatyana Valovich: What would you like to change really in the current life, so that in Russia they somehow turn to this problem by the other party, as the European Commission planned, not to consider a disabled person, as an object of only social or medical rehabilitation, but to be perceived as a full-fledged citizen?

Yuri Kuznetsov: This will be when the city will be available when television and radio programs are constant rather than cyclic in nature, when newspapers will print their materials about people with disabilities as necessary, when they simply do not remember us on the occasion of any problems. There is one such interesting statement that I would like to say: "All over the world, disabled people are fighting for their rights. Please do not bother us in our struggle for a better life, we demand a recognition that we deserve. Do not regret us, better include and support us." It seems to me that this is the motto of today.