Meeting against increase of housing and communal services tariffs in Rostov-on-Don

It was held on March 4 on the Theatre Square of Rostov-on-Don and gathered about two thousands of participants. As had been announced by the meeting organizers, it was part of the All-Russia action against the "housing and communal choker."

The speakers called the RF Housing Code, which became effective in 2005, criminal and requested its invalidation. The fact of higher tariffs without a real improvement of the services caused particular indignation among the speakers. They demanded invalidation of the resolutions of the oblast governor and the city mayor on raising the tariffs prior to rearranging the entire housing and communal services system. The speeches cited the following figures: "The prices for goods and products, and the housing and communal services tariffs in 2005 grew in Russia by 30-35 percent, 50 percent of wages and salaries were not raised."

However, the topics of speeches, despite the declared topic of the meeting, also included unemployment which had risen in the oblast during the previous year, and provision of housing to the population. In 2005, the number of officially registered unemployed in the Rostov oblast grew by 9.5 percent and amounted to 38,300 people, the number of agricultural workers dropped by 5.7 percent.

One of the speakers, supported by all participants, called the national project "Accessible Housing" hypocritical, because even subsidies to the interest on housing credits leave them unaffordable for an absolute majority of the population.

One of the posters held by the participants in the meeting featured "Minimum of subsistence to every citizen." The agreement between the Rostov oblast administration, trade unions and the Union of Employers envisaged bringing the minimum wage close to the subsistence minimum by 2007, but how should we live today, said the speakers. The meeting lasted for two hours, facilitated by the sunny weather which came after the yesterday's snowfall.