The vigilant head of the district accused Kostroma residents of "genocide of officials"

"The administration of the Makaryevsky district requests to conduct a check on the fact of a public call for extremist activity on the Internet and YouTube in relation to [several residents of the district], expressed in incitement to offenses falling under the scope of Article 280 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and aimed at inciting hatred or enmity towards representatives of local governments, namely the head of the Makaryevsky municipal district To Metelkin Yu.Yu.", - the statement reads.

The reason for the irritation of the head was the appeal of local residents that appeared in social networks. Veterans and parents of the Makaryev preschool children expressed public complaints to the head about the closure of the local bathhouse and attempts to combine two kindergartens into one.

Residents considered that the actions of the head of the United Russia party cause harm to the social infrastructure of the city. They expressed reasonable fears that one kindergarten for all the kids in the city will not be enough, and the closure of the bathhouse during the period of partial mobilization not only creates problems for the inhabitants of numerous houses without amenities, but also deprives the city of the only sanitation point for the mobilized.

"In order to silence the dissenters, the manager wrote a statement to the prosecutor's office and the local department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs", - the Logos TV channel reports.

In addition, the official asked the local department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct an inspection and involve one of the activists under the article on discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

Inspections of residents for "genocide of officials" and "extremism" continued for two months. Finally, in January 2023, the security forces sent a resolution to the residents of Makariev, which stated that they refused to initiate criminal cases against them — for lack of corpus delicti.

The outraged locals perceived the official's accusations of "genocide" and "extremism" as an attempt to "shut their mouths" in a particular area through political repression.

The conflict between the residents and the Makariev administration broke out in 2022, when the authorities decided to reorganize both city kindergartens into one. Parents of pupils and kindergarten teams opposed the merger, fearing that the merger would do more harm than good. But the authorities did not want to listen to the residents. Then the makaryevites recorded several videos in social networks with the justification of their fears. The activity of the citizens greatly annoyed the authorities, and they decided to "calm them down" with the threat of criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, the noise raised by residents in social networks still had an effect: in January, the prosecutor's office ordered the Makaryev city hall to resume the work of the city bath, which they closed due to unprofitability.