In the afternoon in front of the regional philharmonic there was a rally of workers of the Kirov Central Market, which is under threat of destruction. It was attended by activists of regional office of "Communist Party", representatives of the organization "Children of War" and residents of Kirov, who spoke, among other things, against the activities of regional and city authorities, raising tariffs on goods, transport and utilities.
Photo: Sergei Zhilin
The main theme of all the speeches was the possible destruction of the Central Market. This information has been widely discussed in the regional media after ads for tender recently appeared on the Internet: the area where entrepreneurs sold clothing, food, and local producers — fruits and vegetables from their gardens, can be passed for a construction of the shopping center.
"Not an oblast but "a zone"
In his opening remarks, Secretary of the Kirov Regional Committee of the Communist Party on the protest movement Vladimir Osetrov noted that the regional government has made a kind of "gift" for people of the region in the form of higher prices for goods and services, the abolition of a number of benefits. In particular, labor veterans will be able to use public transport for free or with a discount, only if the average income per person for three months is less than 11 214 rubles. For high school students the average of a monthly income of a family of three will be taken into account — 33 642 rubles, and students will be required to submit a certificate of their income if living apart from their parents.
“We know that fares on public transport will rise in March 1 this year, housing and communal services will become even more expensive, commodity prices will also zoom up,” Vladimir Osetrov began. “The ruble today is depreciated by 42%, as well as pensions, scholarships, which are known to be small. Working people, in fact, have a declined salary, since its purchasing power reduced. In these circumstances, the governor only leaves benefits for low-income seniors and students. On the part of Nikita Belyh it is disrespectful to veterans who restored economy, industry, agriculture of the Kirov region in the postwar hard times. Oblast where a governor doesn’t protect an old man and a child — it's not an oblast, but a zone where only the strongest has right.”
The speaker was particularly concerned by imminent job cuts: about 5 thousand people of 203 enterprises of the Kirov region may become unemployed, for example, in agriculture — 987 people.
“With the consent of the governor the city administration adopted a resolution on December 31, 2014 and auctioned Central Market, on the site of which it is planned to build a shopping and entertainment center, without taking into account the opinion of tenants and individual entrepreneurs, most of whom have worked for 20 years here. There are already 5,000 signatures of buyers who don’t want their favorite market to be moved out of the city,” Vladimir Osetrov said.
Many speakers talked about politics:
“The government always says that they are public servants. And we are the lords then. But in fact, servants of the people live better than we, lords, do. Officials don’t prejudice themselves, they issue themselves bonuses, get huge salaries, buy apartments abroad. They force us to the same Maidan, as in Ukraine, and none of them will stop, they will shoot and kill us,” resident of Kirov Svetlana Yurlova said.
"We are left with nothing"
“I believe that the construction of a shopping center on the market territory is a fraud and a trap,” businessman Viktor Glebov said. “Authorities are trying to deceive us, they want the territory itself. I want to ask the city administration: "Why Krasulin came to our city [acting deputy head of the city administration]? Who is he?" We know that Yury Viktorovich is from Moscow, he retires in two years, and we are left with nothing. Will he feed our families or give us a job? - No. He, Muscovite, protects the "federalist", together with the Governor, and those who brought him here and gave him a position. If we, employees of the market, will suffer, residents of Kirov will also suffer. Each tenant pays 32,000 rubles to the federal treasury, and we have more than 2,500 people. Who gave officials right to throw mud, to say that it is "Shanghai", that there is no order? I call everybody to unite and stand in defense of the market and all Kirov residents.”
The protesters greeted entrepreneur Marat Makarov with applause; he on behalf of all employees of the market demanded the city authorities to leave the halls and land owned by the municipality, to keep working and shopping places for all working people, without changing its food-ware profile, and not to move the market outside of the town.
Upon completion of the protest action, the participants unanimously adopted a resolution, which will be submitted to the Federal and regional authorities. The protesters agreed to meet on February 23, but with the participation of regional and city officials for those to report on the implementation of requirements of the protesters.