Deceived housing co-investors blocked the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod highway

Fifty defrauded shareholders from the Noginsk district of the Moscow region said they blocked the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod federal highway as a sign of protest, blocking traffic for 40 minutes with the help of their own cars and single pickets. The police, where the picket participants were taken, claim that there was no blockade, and the actions of the shareholders only “briefly impeded traffic.” Previously, the Russian government had already come up with an initiative to prosecute citizens who “block highways,” but the State Duma rejected this bill.

As one of the defrauded shareholders, Daniil Volodin, told Kommersant, yesterday at about 11:00 fifty residents of Noginsk and the village of Obukhovo blocked the M7 federal highway with their cars in the area of the 30th kilometer. “Formally, we did not violate anything. 20 people were crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing, at the same time, 8 of our cars broke down right at the crossing, and another 20 people staged single pickets along the road,” said Mr. Volodin. “Traffic along the highway was paralyzed for 40 minutes, after which law enforcement officers arrived and manually pushed the cars to the side of the road, and then tied up the activists and took them to the Noginsk police station."

According to Mr. Volodin, at first about 100 residents intended to gather at 9.00 in the village of Obukhovo to hold a series of single pickets. “The riot police were already waiting for us there, and we tried to move to the village of Staraya Kupavna, but the police were also waiting for us there, after which we decided to go block the highway,” he said. According to Daniil Volodin, the detained shareholders were kept in police custody for five hours. The detainees were taken to court, where they were given summonses: the shareholders will be tried under Art. 20.2 of the Administrative Code (“Violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picketing”), which provides for a fine of 500 to 1 thousand rubles.

Residents of Noginsk and the village of Obukhovo have been trying to complete the construction of houses since 2008 (construction should have been completed back in 2005). The shareholders have already filed complaints with all government bodies, including the Prosecutor General's Office and the Presidential Administration, but have not received a response. In the spring of 2010, the governor of the Moscow region, Boris Gromov, promised that the houses would be completed in July, but communications have still not been connected to the buildings.

The Moscow Region Central Internal Affairs Directorate yesterday denied the statement about blocking the highway. “A group of shareholders tried to organize an unauthorized picket at a pedestrian crossing,” said Evgeniy Gildeev, head of the information department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate. “Police officers, having arrived at the scene, warned the picket participants that their actions were illegal. After refusing to stop the rally, the violators were detained and taken to the Noginsky police department area. The road closure was not allowed." According to the Yandex.Traffic analytical center, there were no major traffic delays during the actions of shareholders. As the press service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate clarified, “traffic was difficult, but less than 40 minutes - no one would allow citizens to stand for that long.” The Ministry of Construction of the Moscow Region refused to comment on the situation.

Let us note that earlier the Russian government took the initiative to criminally punish citizens who block highways. The initiative was introduced after a scandal in Pikalevo (Leningrad Region), whose residents in May last year, having lost their jobs at the Baselcement plant, blocked the federal highway, after which on June 4, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the city and ordered the owner of the plant, Oleg Deripaska, to pay wages to the townspeople. According to the current Criminal Code, blocking roads is criminally punishable only “if these acts negligently resulted in the infliction of serious harm to human health or the infliction of major damage.” However, last Friday MPs rejected the government's initiative to make road blocking a crime.

Ivan Buranov

Shareholders set foot on the protest route