Kursk Acting Governor Calls Residents’ Demands for Greater Compensation for Ukrainian Offensive Losses “Not Entirely Fair” – Meduza

Alexander Khinshtein, acting governor of Russia’s Kursk region, called Sudzha residents’ demands for greater compensation for property lost during the Ukrainian offensive “not entirely fair.”

Khinshtein met with residents of border areas on December 28 and subsequently published a video of the meeting, which he described as “unprecedented.” “I want everyone to see and hear for themselves how the dialogue with the people really unfolded, without subjective interpretations and judgments,” he wrote.

during the meetingactivist Valery Moiseyev speak on behalf of the residents of Sudzha. “We had everything. We didn’t ask for anything, we supported the army, we had beautiful houses, gardens, everything. We don’t ask anything from the authorities. (…) And now they give us certificates, but the only thing we will get will be bare walls; There is nothing there,” Moiseyev said. He added that he and others cannot afford loans to repair or furnish new homes. Moiseyev proposed increasing the compensation by 825,000 rubles (about $7,500), bringing the total to 1 million rubles (about $9,200).

Khinshtein rejected the proposal and said: “You say: we lived without asking the State for anything. It feels like you exist on an uninhabited island until 2022, as if there are no roads, hospitals, schools and state assistance. And as if in the end not even the pensions were paid by the State but rather they came out of nowhere. That’s not true. The idea that ‘the State didn’t help us before, but now it should’, I think is not entirely fair.”

He then asked representatives of nine municipalities present at the meeting to vote on whether they supported Moiseyev’s position or his own. No one raised their hand in support of Moiseyev.

Residents of the border areas of the Kursk region, who lost their homes during the Ukrainian offensive in August, had long demanded housing certificates promised by Khinshtein’s predecessor, Alexey Smirnov. Their efforts included protests and appeals to President Vladimir Putin.

The government eventually issued the certificates, although recipients are only allowed to use them to purchase real estate, since stipulated in the corresponding decree.