A special operation against garage owners is taking place in Moscow

Irina Mishina

In the morning, NI began receiving dozens of photos and videos from Kronshtadsky Boulevard, which depicted the demolition and disposal of garages. There were actually no warnings about the demolition.

«The chairman of the garage cooperative called and announced the news in the spirit of „come, our garages are being broken.“ It turned out that an announcement about the demolition was hung on the garages on September 19. And on the 21st in the morning, the equipment already arrived and began to break everything. That people may not be in In Moscow, abroad, lying in a hospital and hundreds of other options, no one in the Moscow government seems to care.

According to the chairman, the officials of the city council told him that the decision was made in August, but no one warned him about anything. We decided not to spoil the mood of the electorate before the elections. I arrived at the place, and there was a picture — either another „gas clap“, or a Ukrainian drone arrived. Garages are being destroyed by excavators, without opening them before, with all the contents, people who do not speak Russian very well are already scurrying everywhere, offering the former owners to „buy out old batteries, if there are any“, whether they are employees of the contractor's company, or just looters — it is unclear. None of the „workers“, so to speak, are wearing helmets and vests. The owners themselves, who managed to arrive, literally in the middle of all this, take their things from the garages, who managed to do what. Right at the garage, an excavator rips off the roof, and there are still people inside. I would be very surprised if it all ended without injury. The general impression of what is happening is some kind of phenomenal bestiality on the part of the Moscow authorities and the city council in particular, » said NONE of the garage owners Alexander.

It is worth noting that this garage cooperative is more than 20 years old, there were about 60 boxes in total.

«Now, before my eyes, someone else's garages are being opened, where there is someone else's property, other people's things, and all this is being compared to the ground. Something is being packed nearby. If people come back, they will not find the ends and their belongings, their cars, » says Elena, the garage owner.

The only thing we managed to find out was a notice written on a piece of paper, according to which «by the decision of the District Commission for the Suppression of Unauthorized Construction on the territory of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow from 17.08.2023, garage facilities were recognized as illegally placed.»

Why couldn't people be notified a month in advance? Oh, yes, the elections were in Moscow, somehow everything did not conveniently coincide…

Demolition work was assigned to The administration of the Golovinsky district of Moscow. We tried to call there, and they even told us the name of the person responsible for these works — Ekaterina Belenkova, but as you guessed correctly, she was unavailable. Well, absolutely. At a meeting, at the facility, busy. The secretary refused to connect with the head of the Golovinsky district council, Mikhail Panasenko, after learning about what issue we were on.

What is the legal background of what is happening?

We turned to real estate lawyer Stanislav Stankevich with a request to comment on what happened.

«It's all about the land for building. Such stories are happening everywhere in Moscow now, especially the Northern Administrative District is affected by this. The background is that in Soviet times, land was distributed for indefinite use for garages, but it was land on which, in principle, it was impossible to build, for example, it was under a power line. But now, for some reason, the city has stopped recognizing documents that, in fact, no one has canceled. In some cases, behind the owners' backs, the chairmen of the garage cooperative board renegotiated contracts with „left-wing“ structures, which were then also abolished. Now Moscow needs land for building, and by hook or by crook they are trying to get it. There were even cases when the courts were still going on, and for the demolition of garages, builders were already planted for demolition under the cover of police and machine gunners. They destroyed everything they could. I think this process will get worse, because there is less and less land for building in Moscow, » lawyer Stanislav Stankevich believes.

According to the lawyer, there is a judicial perspective in the case of the demolition of garages, but everything depends on the status of the land that was allocated for it. If the land was allocated for indefinite use, they had no right to demolish it. Soviet documents are now valid.

In the case of garages on Kronshtadsky, the story takes on a detective turn, since this whole demolition story was carried out not only without observing safety regulations, but without elementary human ideas about what is good and what is bad.