November 26 representatives of the Youth Human Rights Movement and the Confederation of Free Labor (CFL) were summoned to the regional department of fiscal policy. Alyona Obyezdchikova and Andrei Rashevsky were confident that officials wanted to agree with them a debt in installment for rent of the House of human rights building. However, from the very beginning activists realized that they would be just insulted and humiliated.
“You are parasites and spongers, stuck to the city budget, registered a bunch of companies but there is no benefit from you,” defenders heard such statements from Elena Muromtseva, Head of fiscal policy of Voronezh city administration. In her opinion, because of the non-governmental organizations, located in the Human Right House, the city government can’t repair schools and hospitals. To put it mildly, she was also confused by the fact that on Cyurupy, 34 there lived a dog, which, by the way, was engaged in charitable activities: Varya helped "difficult" children to adapt to life in society.
“Muromtseva didn’t listen to us at all,” Alyona Obyezdchikova said. “I got the feeling that she just wanted to arrange a demonstration spanking.”
“We, the poor, working for free, you see, have brought down the city budget,” Andrei Rashevsky commented. “We have tried to argue that our receiving office has been operating for nearly 20 years, it is the oldest, and many of them were not there when we started to work. But they don’t listen to people there. The idea that citizens can organize something themselves is causing outrage in these walls.
This is not the first year when officials talk about the eviction of the Human Rights House. But, according to activists, they have never experienced such boorish welcome in the city administration. Previously, the authorities treated them rather politely. Human rights defenders regretted that they didn’t have a dictaphone to document the abuse and transfer recordings to a disciplinary commission.
The regional department of fiscal policy promised to send a letter to the address of the organization to terminate the lease in the near future.
Civil activists lean for support of the Human Rights Council, Commissioner, Kudrin and others who have repeatedly stood up for them, whose recommendations still allowed to save place for the Human Rights House.
Human rights defenders have repeatedly been able to negotiate with the authorities. A month ago, MPD and CFL met Deputy Mayor Sergei Kurilo, who promised to find a compromise. Voronezh ombudsman and the Council for Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation helped to defend the Human Rights House in 2013 — they managed to negotiate more favorable lease terms with the local authorities. Governor Alexei Gordeev has repeatedly said that it was necessary to maintain the Human Rights House in Voronezh.
