Residents of Imereti Lowland continue resisting resettlement

Eviction of residents is in full swing in the Imereti Lowland, a district of Sochi, where construction of the large Olympic Stadium is planned. However, because of inadequate, in the opinion of residents, compensations they continue protesting and bringing actions.

"700 families should be moved out of the Lowland. 102 houses were built for them in Nekrasovskoe settlement. 60 more houses were built in Tavricheskaya Street - five kilometres away from the sea, while the houses from where people are evicted are some 150-500 meters from the sea. Besides, part of the families will be moved to Urozhainaya Street, it's at all 10 kilometres away from the sea. This street, as a matter of fact, is within the industrial area, near the federal highway running to Abkhazia," Valery Suchkov, one of founders of the Sochi public town-planning council, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to his story, they also plan to resettle families to Vesyoly settlement: "They suppose to have about 400 apartments there. But they are different from private houses with land plots, to which Imereti residents are accustomed."
He added that only several residents agreed to get monetary compensations, as the value of them was appointed by appraisers, not by house owners.

"First judicial claims have been filed already. Money should have arrived within a week, but not all the people received them. These people have passed through all Russian instances and lodged complaints to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), but nobody knows when they will be considered," said Mr Suchkov.

Sergey Samko, an employee of the legal division of the Olympic Department, assured the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that there are no unhappy residents. As to the case of citizens' hunger strike he said that Imereti residents "have incorrectly assessed the situation."

"People had thought that they'd get too little. But now they've revised their demands and are quite happy. In total, about one thousand families will be resettled," said Mr Samko.