07 July 2007, 13:23
After approval of Sochi-2014 application the second wave of protest begins
The residents of the Imereti Lowland are preparing their new meetings of protest against their eviction.
"Where the Imereti residents will be resettled - nobody knows. Informally, bureaucrats say that in the best case the resettlers will be paid out symbolic 'minimum,' while the market value of the land in the vicinity of Sochi grows day after day," Olga Miryasova, representative of the "Institute of Collective Action" has noted. According to her data, the cost of one hundredth of a hectare in the coastal strip already reaches up to 50,000 euros, the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.
Residents of 1,500 houses in settlements Mirny, Veseloye, Nizhne-Imeretinskaya Bukhta, Svetofor, and former collective farms "Rossiya" and Yuzhnye Kultury" are at risk to remain homeless. After arrival to Sochi of the IOC's (International Olympic Committee) estimation commission this February, the authorities promised to redeem the land from old residents at the market price, however, not a single resident has managed to register his land property during the recent six months.
Until now, the "greens" have been arguing with the members of the government and application committee on the IOC's regulations, under which cities-candidates had no right to make changes in their application books. "Now, nothing prevents from bringing the Olympic objects beyond the borders of the security zone of the reserve and Grushevy Ridge," Mikhail Kreindlin, a Greenpeace expert says. "In Turin, all the objects were redesigned anew with account of ecological safety after the IOC had approved the Italian initial application," the "Gazeta.Ru" writes.