Residents of Volgograd hold "picket of despair"

In Volgograd, on July 8 in Lenin Square residents held a "picket of despair", which was sanctioned by the authorities. Its participants were eight activists of the initiative group of the social movement "Volgograd Mothers" and the townspeople, who lost their homes by court rulings.

From 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. about 20 picketers expressed their dissatisfaction with unfair, in their view, actions of the courts. They held posters: "I'm homeless, thanks to Homeland!", "Judicial lawlessness, corruption in power bodies erode our Homeland", "President, distrust of the court – the worst thing for the state; it shouldn't be tolerated!"

The members of the initiative group of the social movement "Volgograd Mothers" told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that out of the 11 lawsuits filed by parents of children whose rights to stay in kindergartens were broken, according to mothers, two lawsuits were dismissed by the courts: those lodged by the Fomin and Ionov families.

The trial on the lawsuit of Victoria Fomina took place on July 6 and ended in her failure. She believes that the judge was simply "afraid" to rule in favour of the claimant.

"Judge Asatiani from the Kirov District Court has referred, when ruling against us, to the article of the law on expiry of the limitation period. My advocate and I categorically disagree with this decision. We will appeal against it at the Regional Court. We also wrote a complaint against the unjust actions of the judge," said Fomina.

The picket passed without incidents. Officials refrained from entering a dialogue with the protesters. the activists gathered signatures of passers-by under the general appeal to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.