Gannushkina: they plan to accrue compensations to residents of Chechnya by July

On June 7, the Russian Ministry of Regional Development held a meeting on compensations for lost houses in Chechnya. According to Svetlana Gannushkina, leader of the NGO "Civil assistance", the officials told that they would be able to calculate the value of the project by July only and asked for a delay.

The issue to readdress the old and painful problem of compensations to residents of Chechnya was raised by Svetlana Gannushkina at President Medvedev's meeting with human rights defenders on May 19.

"Apart from the issues directly concerning Northern Caucasus, I raised the issue of the people who had left Chechnya because of the war and are not going to come back there. Some of them received no compensation for the houses they left there," she said.

Mr Gannushkina reminded that the first statement about compensations to residents of Chechnya was passed by the government of the Russian Federation back on April 30, 1997. According to that document, the compensation per family made about 20,000 US dollars or 120,000 roubles by the then exchange rate.

The payment were defined as follows: the number of family members multiplied by the standard area per person and by the average Russia's cost of one square meter. But there was an addition: "No more than 120,000 roubles in total."

"As I believe, the top limit should be deleted from that old statement, but the calculation formula should remain," she said.

In 1997, 120,000 roubles were enough to buy an average flat for a family of five. The 1998 default essentially aggravated the situation. Now you cannot by a room for one for that money.

In recent years, many people agreed to receive four thousand dollars and spent the money on life or treatment - many refugees were wounded in the warfare or required surgery. As a result, the housing problem for them remains unsolved. Ms Gannushkina described all the circumstances in her letter to the President and was quite satisfied with those instructions he gave to the Ministry of Regional Development for settling the problem.

"I should remind you that four years ago same instructions were given by Putin to the same Ministry - nothing was done. I want to note that instructions given by Medvedev have some development; the difference is obvious. Probably, concrete deadlines are fixed," the rights defender said.