Putin approved the creation of a gambling zone in the Altai Republic - despite protests from local residents

Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the creation of a gambling zone on the territory of the Altai Republic. The document was published on the official legal information portal.

The new gaming area will be located on the territory of the Manzherok ski resort, which, in turn, belongs to Sberbank and is headed by German Gref. This will be the sixth such zone in the country; another one has been operating for more than ten years in the neighboring Altai Territory.

Position of the authorities . According to the authors of the initiative, the creation of a gambling zone will increase tourism activity in the region. The development of the resort was given to the head of Sberbank, German Gref. It is expected that the budget of the Altai Republic will receive 300 million rubles from the creation of the zone.

As New Europe wrote, the region was adopted against the backdrop of steady signals about the imminent legalization of online casinos throughout the country - in order to replenish the sagging budget.

Opinion of local residents . Representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and social activists opposed the initiative. Senator from Buryatia Vyacheslav Markhaev said that the authorities ignore the opinion of residents and indigenous peoples, for whom Altai is considered a sacred territory. He proposed developing tourism through infrastructure rather than building a casino. Social activists collected four thousand signatures against the idea.

Context . The governor of the Altai Republic since 2024 is the former secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Andrei Turchak. The Insider, citing a source in the leadership of Russian regions, wrote that Turchak’s appointment to the post is an exile and punishment for the “failure” of the participants in the war in Ukraine in the United Russia primaries.