Rally in Bezengi demands transferring village land to municipal ownership

The participants of the rally in the village of Bezengi, where the basic demand was to oblige the authorities of Kabardino-Balkaria to fulfil Federal Law No. 131, according to which, in their opinion, they have the right to deal with the development of the tourist cluster, adopted a resolution. They ask the President of the Russian Federation to enforce the constitutional order in the republic and refuse to cooperate with the "Resorts of Northern Caucasus", until the land of the village is transferred to the municipality.

The action was agreed upon and attracted about 100 people. The rally, which was to last for an hour, in fact lasted for two and a half hours. Speeches were pronounced by 12 persons; all of them expressed their attitude to the situation. The action, according to the participants, was peaceful; no incidents with the police were reported.

At the end of the rally, its participants adopted a resolution, according to which the protesters plan to notify the Directorate of the OJSC "Resorts of Northern Caucasus" that until all the land owned by the village and surrounding villages, alienated in 2005, is transferred to the municipal ownership by the Bezengi rural settlement, the population of Bezengi will actively oppose the corporation's activities by all means under Russian laws.

The resolution will be sent to President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Presidential Envoy to the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) Alexander Khloponin and the managers of the OJSC "Resorts of Northern Caucasus".

"Our land is of interest to all, but we are of interest to nobody," said one of the protesters Abdullah Anaev, 84. "Federal Law No. 131 works all across Russia, except for Kabardino-Balkaria."

Another participant in the rally named Keziban Ulbasheva has called the Balkar nation "the hostage of its territory."