PO demands to seize land under cottage village in Gelendjik
The court has accepted for consideration the claim lodged by the Prosecutor's Office (PO) of the Krasnodar Territory, which has demanded to seize the land under the cottage village Mayak (Beacon) in the city of Gelendjik in favour of the state, and to recognize the houses built there as unauthorized construction and demolish them.
The claim of the above PO in defence of the interests of an indefinite number of persons and the Russian Federation in connection with the loss of the state's rights to a plot of land in the dwelling settlement of Kabardinka, where the elite cottage village Mayak was built, was submitted for consideration to the Gelendjik City Court.
The PO has demanded to seize the land plot worth about a billion roubles in favour of the state; and to recognize the cottages themselves as unauthorized constructions and demolish them, the “Kommersant” outlet has written today, on June 23.
During the inspections, the PO has established that the Mayak settlement is located in the territory of the tourist base of the same name, which during the Soviet years had the status of a state trade union institution; and the land area of 8.4 hectares was in the perpetual use thereof. In 1992, the presidium of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia transferred the tourist base to its Gelendjik branch. However, as the PO asserts, the above had no right to dispose of the facility, since there was no corresponding resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation.
After the above transfer of the tourist base, it was corporatized, and one of its shareholders was Maxim Bondarenko, the current head of the Primorsko-Akhtarsky District of Kuban (Krasnodar Territory). According to the PO, he, together with other persons, organized a series of court rulings that made it possible to split the said Land plot into smaller pieces and register the ownership rights of citizens to them. In 2008, the same Gelendjik City Court changed the type of permitted use of the site from "operation of a resort complex" to "individual housing construction", and in 2012, cottages began to be built there.
Apart from Bondarenko, 48 other citizens are defendants in the case, including relatives of former high-ranking Kuban officials, as well as the property management union "Posyolok Mayak".
Maxim Bondarenko himself disagrees with the PO’s claims. In his interview with the above outlet he stated that the property was acquired by him when he was successfully engaged in business; and all the transactions were concluded completely legally. He has added that he is ready to prove this.
This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 23, 2025 at 05:51 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.