Keys to the Constitution

Residents of the village announced to the authorities that they reserve the right to disobey

The struggle for property and social justice, which the inhabitants of the village of Klyuchi in the suburbs of Omsk have been waging for the fifth year, is entering a decisive stage. Until now, the klyuchenets have defended their rights, guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, ...

The struggle for property and social justice, which the inhabitants of the village of Klyuchi in the suburbs of Omsk have been waging for the fifth year, is entering a decisive stage.

Until now, the klyuchenets have defended their rights, guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, exclusively in the legal field. Now they promise to go to arbitrariness. Back in 2006, a gathering of citizens of this settlement decided to terminate contracts for the supply of water and heat with the district communal farm and conclude them with a private enterprise that offered the same services at half the price. More than half of the local population (total number - 5 thousand people) signed this decree, which no one, including the head of state, had the right to cancel, since the gathering of citizens is the highest authority in the territory where it is held. But for municipal officials, the decree is not a decree: they continued to send home receipts with inflated tariffs and turn off non-payers.

More than once the villagers tried to influence the government by political methods. On the eve of the last elections to the State Duma, at the next meeting, it was decided not to vote for United Russia. Then the rallies moved from the village to the city. The last one took place on May 21 this year. It dealt not only with utility tariffs, but also with the seizure of land shares from 1,388 local residents. They were illegally appropriated by a commercial structure with the tacit consent of the prosecutor's office. Neither the supervisory authority nor the regional government reacted to these actions.

The keymen's patience ran out. At a rally held in the center of the village on August 8, they adopted a resolution in which they wrote that, seeing the futility of appealing to the authorities, “we notify the President of the Russian Federation, the governor and the prosecutor of the Omsk region that if before the elections to local governments in October 2010 will not be taken appropriate measures to restore our constitutional rights, we reserve the right to arbitrary action, including disobedience to law enforcement." The rally was organized by the regional committee on human rights. As its chairman, Valentin Kuznetsov, explained to Novaya Gazeta, in cases where the authorities openly violate the law, citizens can defend their right to life by all means available to them, including such as blocking highways or seizing land that belongs to them by law.