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A retired lieutenant colonel, desperate to get housing, returned his military orders and medals to the President of Russia

Sergey Konovalov, Lieutenant Colonel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, after vain attempts to receive an apartment, returned his military awards received for participation in the war in Chechnya to President Vladimir Putin. There are thousands of such officers acting and retired, who have lost the right to housing.

Lieutenant Colonel of the Navy Sergey Konovalov has not been able to get an apartment laid by him by law for five years. A participant in the hostilities in the North Caucasus, a teacher of the Naval Academy, who gave the army more than 23 years and fired for health reasons in 2010, Konovalov, in accordance with the Law on the Status of Military Personnel, dated 25.051998 No. 76-ФЗ, has the right to an additional 15–25 meters of housing allocated. 8 paragraph 15 of the article of this law reads:

"Officers in military ranks Colonel, equal to him and above, who are serving from military service or military service upon reaching the age of age in military service, health status or in connection with organizational and staffing events, as well as military units, military personnel with honorary titles of the Russian Federation, military personnel-teachers of military professional educational organizations or military educational educational organizations Higher education, military departments under state educational organizations of higher education, military personnel - scientists with scientific degrees and (or) scientists, have the right to an additional total area of housing with a size of at least 15 square meters and no more than 25 square meters. "

However, the interpretation of this law has radically changed in recent years by courts and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, in particular, the leadership of the Department of Housing of the Ministry of Defense, led to the fact that Sergei Konovalov, like many other retired officers, lost housing rights. About how serious the problem of housing for officers has become now, you can see at their forum the legal mutual assistance of military personnel . Sergei Konovalov himself tells about his ordeals:

Numerous appeals to the reception of the President of the Russian Federation, were unsuccessful to the bodies of the military prosecutor's office

- I am Sergey Alexandrovich Konovalov, retired lieutenant colonel. In relation to me, the state did not fulfill its obligations in terms of providing living space, taking into account the right to additional meters of total area. Numerous appeals to the reception of the President of the Russian Federation, were unsuccessful to the bodies of the military prosecutor's office. It was not possible to restore their violated rights in court, since the courts recently took the side of the Ministry of Defense, and these categories of military personnel who were not provided with housing during military service, the courts refuse to satisfy their legal requirements. That is, maybe we took the path of conspiracy with the Ministry of Defense in order to save money. I have no confidence that this is so, but until 2013, the category of military personnel was provided by the additional meters of total area that should be supposed to be supposed to be additional. And if there were courts, then they took the side of the military and restored their right to a legitimate dwelling. It is currently almost impossible to restore our rights. The question is also as follows: how it is, the Ministry of Defense for three years believed that I had the right to housing that was being applied to me, and subsequently lifted this right, since I am no longer a soldier of the Ministry of Defense and did not act as a teacher of the highest military school.

Numerous promises from the Ministry of Defense remained promises

After graduating from the Military Academy, I was appointed a teacher of one of the educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense, which gave me the right to be wealthy housing both official and permanent, taking into account the right to additional meters of total area. However, before my dismissal, I was not provided with residential premises that I was supposed. And numerous promises from the Ministry of Defense remained promises. For three years, the ministry fed me "breakfast". However, after 2013 it turned out that I did not have the right that I possessed at the time of dismissal from military service. I tried twice to restore my violated rights in court. However, all my efforts were unsuccessful. The most interesting thing is that, making his definition against me, the judge of the Supreme Court made a ruling against a completely different person. This indicates the insolvency of our judicial system. During a repeated attempt to reach the Supreme Court, he referred to one of his decisions, and made a definition that this category has the right to provide appropriate housing only during the service. What then can we talk about if during the service I was not provided with any residential premises that I had the right to? This is not my fault. This wine lies completely at the Ministry of Defense. The promises that we will be provided with housing remained on paper.

- On August 5, you returned to President Vladimir Putin your combat awards, which ones?

- I returned to the presidential administration the Order of Courage and the Medal "For Courage" received during the fighting in the Chechen Republic from 1994 to 1995.

Order of courage

- What did you want to show, returning your awards to the president?

- This is not a sign of protest. I wanted to get attention to our problem, since it does not solve in any way.

- What did you answer from the presidential administration before?

- That all my appeals were sent to the Ministry of Defense, and answers come from there, which states that due to the fact that you are not a military person, you have lost the right to residential area.

Today in Russia, in a situation similar to the one in which Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Konovalov found himself, there were hundreds, and maybe thousands of officers across the country, including teachers of higher military educational institutions. One of them, a lieutenant colonel named Andrei , who asked not to give his last name and place of service, says:

- I entered the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 1989, graduated from a military school, served in the Far East. He graduated from the Military Academy in Moscow, Adjuncture. Received a degree and academic title, associate professor. I am a candidate of science. He was a teacher at the Air Force Engineering Academy. Zhukovsky, who has now moved to Voronezh. It so happened that since 2009 I have been in line for housing with additional meters, in accordance with the decree for the entire teaching staff. There were no problems with this, everything was recognized both by the housing commission and the Department of Housing of the Ministry of Defense. And the problem, the first rumors went about the fact that teachers have been denied this square, since the end of 2014. Since the beginning of 2015, this has ceased to be episodic in nature and to date has become massive. Moreover, they are deprived of the right to housing unilaterally, without giving any explanation, give refusals for apartments that are laid and which are now. This is the personal position of the Department and, probably, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense. I was currently provided with an apartment, all the documents were checked for it, and approved by the inspector of the department. And then refusals came. Currently, although the year of my distribution, already, 2005, I never received an apartment.

- There are many people like you, teachers of military educational institutions, found themselves in the same situation with housing as you?

- Almost all military academies are withdrawn from Moscow. These are not dozens, not hundreds, these are thousands of people. And this is only in Moscow. But military schools and institutions are not only in Moscow, but also in the regions. Therefore, this problem concerns most officers. Moreover, not only the teaching staff, but also the scientific, that is, employees of military research institutes. This also applies to the commanders who were reduced after the reforms first Serdyukov, and then Shoigu. This is the problem of thousands of people.

This is the problem of thousands of people

Alexander Porruk , lawyer of the human rights organization "Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg", which Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Konovalov contacted, comments on this situation:

- The case is, in a sense, in different interpretations of the law. As the practice showed, the norms that were provided for military personnel dismissed from military service for health reasons, and whose experience for more than 20 years, as well as having a certain status, was accepted at one time by law enforcement agencies, that is, the courts and the department of the Ministry of Defense, in favor of military personnel. That is, if an officer, for example, Sergey Konovalov, is a military person, he is serving and teaches at a military educational institution, then he automatically has the right to receive additional meters of housing allocated. This position was supported at one time by both the Constitutional Court and the courts of general jurisdiction. However, literally a few years ago this position was revised, and now in several years both the courts and the Ministry of Defense, having revised this tactic, began to believe that the receipt of additional meters is possible for military personnel only during the period of their duties. Moreover, university teachers are excluded from this list. As soon as they lose this status, the status of the current soldier, they immediately lose the right to additional meters. In accordance with this changed interpretation of the law, Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Konovalov did not provide housing. However, the law clearly states that upon dismissal, a soldier must receive housing in the case, for example, upon dismissal for health reasons. And now we are trying to initiate a new court proceedings in which we will seek to recognize the actions of the Ministry of Defense illegal and achieve the provision of Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Konovalov, who was assigned to him according to his status, ”says Alexander Porruk .