Penza, 17 June 2016. PenzaNews. Facebook users who commented to Victor Kuvaytsev about a large plot of land on Okruzhnaya land surrounded by a green fence with a “for improvement” note unexpectedly helped the authorities to locate a squatter who illegally occupied municipal land.

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The first report about the fenced-off land plot was published in the social network by a renown Penza businessman Igor Zaydman back in June 1, who also asked his subscribers to discuss the future building – a shopping center or a block of flats – that could appear on the land plot.

A number of citizens responded to the request, and began throwing their suggestions, such as a large-scale food store, a car shop, a cafe, an entertainment center, and even a fruit garden.

One of the participants in the discussion was Alexei Kostin, assistant Minister of Industry in the Penza region, head of the Information Support Department in the ministry.

“Definitely not a shopping center. The coverage of shopping centers per capita is 2.4 times more than the norm. I think the real estate developers know the figures as well. But there are problems with real estate sales, too,” he wrote.

“That is good, if we discuss it from a rational point of view. But in practice, the construction train keeps heading on,” Igor Zaydman replied.

“People in the know say that real estate production in Penza will keep to the level in the ’17, but the bubble will be burstin in ’18,” Alexei Kostin retorted.

The discussion concluded with Igor Zaydman writing a request to the Penza mayor Victor Kuvaytsev and the Penza city head Valery Savelyev in the comments.

“Victor Kuvaytsev is mum so far: fine. Perhaps the girl that helps him post in the Facebook already left the office. Maybe Valery Savelyev could enlighten us? After all, there should be nothing to hide from the citizens, right?” he asked.

Victor Kuvaytsev – an active Facebook user, who, according to PenzaNews information, maintains his FB account directly – reacted to the post about an hour later.

“Igor, glad to see that you have the time to always be online. I am posting here whenever my job allows. As for the land plot – I’ll investigate,” Victor Kuvaytsev assured him.

At the same time, the Penza city head Valery Savelyev posted no reaction to Igor Zaydman’s comment.

Two weeks later, after the discussion has died down, Victor Kuvaytsev posted a detailed message about the land plot in question.

“There was an investigation by the Municipal Land Control office on my orders: as we found out, there was a partial case of illegal municipal land squatting. The rest of the fenced-off land plot is in private property. As it was registered for an underage person, we are identifying his guardians and their contacts to eliminate the violations and continue working over the issue with the planned construction,” he informed.

“Victor Kuvaytsev, thank you! Quite an interesting case, after all. Nobody would have noticed it, if it weren’t for the potato-quality land improvement notice on the fence,” a Facebook user Alexei Ponomaryev replied to the post.