Penza, 7 October 2015. PenzaNews. Several dozens activists of the Communist Party and the CPRF youth committee have protested against the poor practices of several Penza urban management companies who sent their citizens heating bills for 2012. The act of protest was held in the evening of Wednesday, October 7, at the Dzerzhinsky public garden of Penza.

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The protesters were holding banners reading “Yuri Ilyin, time to go!”, “Yuri Ilyin’s a vice mayor as much as I’m a ballerina!”, “Real money for imaginary heating? Pay It Yourself, Ilyin!”, “No to unruly actions of management companies and inaction of authorities!”, “We do not want to pay the 2012 bills,” and “Authorities, stop fooling citizens with 2012 bills.”

The first to address the crowd was Dmitry Filyaev, first secretary of the CPRF city committee, who called the situation in the Penza urban amenities field a disaster.

“The same situation in the city transportation field and other areas where people are involved. That means the city authority represented by the mayor [Yuri Krivov] and his deputies basically fail their responsibilities. We demand to prevent such situation from occurring in the future,” he said.

Dmitry Filyaev also called to lay off the responsible officials to bring back order in the urban amenities area.

“First of all, the deputy head of Penza city administration, Mister Ilyin,” he clarified.

In his turn, first secretary of the CPRF regional committee branch, deputy of the Penza region Legislative Assembly Georgy Kamnev pointed out that the first issues in urban amenities area first appeared a long time ago but significantly worsened at present.

“This mess began when the city urban amenities department was headed by Ilyin and when the city authorities changed. This day, we have a total loss of control over the Penza city urban amenities field. What does Ilyin manage? We don’t know,” said the leader of Penza Communists.

He also expressed his outrage over heating bills for the heating system test in 2012.

“We think the issues over the bills for 2012 is not the final but only the very beginning. […] The terror for citizens is coming. Now everyone will be brought to courts for not paying, or they will receive a bill from bailiffs – they will be writing money off your bank accounts and cards automatically. So I think this mess, this urban services terror is only taking root,” Georgy Kamnev stressed.

He urged the Penza citizens to be vocal over the current urban amenities situation.

“We were the first to revolt over these bills. Shortly after, All-Russian People’s Front joined us, and the United Russia also spoke out – only spoke out, fearing the public outrage, so to say. So if more people will come here next time, on November 7, and we will demand to cancel the bills for 2012 and to lay off Ilyin, I assure you the authorities will resolve this and the bills will be cancelled. If that doesn’t happen, there will be nobody else to blame,” the Communist Party member said.

Nikolai Varlashin, veteran railroad worker, agreed with him.

“Don’t pay just yet, and tell your neighbors this is utter tomfoolery,” he asked the protesters.