Penza, 18 February 2018. PenzaNews. About 200 participants of co-funded construction who invested money in new housing but still have not received the promised apartments took part in the rally that was held in the Dzerzhinsky public garden in Penza on Sunday, February 18.

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Before the start of the event the territory was enclosed with a warning tape. It was strung in two rows at a distance of several metres from between the monument to Penza Border Guards and the cultural centre.

Presumably, this was done to create a so-called buffer zone between participants of two public events – the rally of construction investors and the cross procession in memory of the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose final point was the building of the cultural centre.

As a result, it was possible to enter the public garden either from the side of building No. 4 in Oktyabrskaya street or from the side of the train station. At the same time, the sidewalks were covered with ice and sometimes with snow, even though several workers of communal services were cleaning sidewalks on the opposite side at that time – near the building of railway transport college.

Kirill Kulyaev, construction investor of the residential complex 8 Marta, was among first speakers to turn to the participants criticizing work of Penza administration on formation of land for new developers.

"There is no certain land at the moment that would help us to solve our common problem, our common trouble, and to finish construction of houses. In particular, Termodom was interested in land in Krupskaya street. Everything seems to be fine: there is a developer, a plot of land, and the building of the houses can be started through the procedure of developer change.

Everything seems to be perfect. Why are we standing here then? In reality, the construction on this land can be started only in two years because first of all people who live there must be resettled," he noted.

Kirill Kulyaev mentioned also other data that are referenced by new developers such as construction group Risan – there are old houses in some plots of land, others need communications, while the rest require examination.

In turn, Ilyas Bulatov, construction investor of the residential complex Lukomorye, drew attention to the fact that Penzastroy company, which had not commissioned five houses on time, had been considered reliable.

"It was a giant of construction, a foremost company, people used to buy its flats as patties already at the stage of excavation works. There were no problems with it. [The general director Valentin] Zhuravlev had inflow of funds but suddenly a crisis broke out. The governor says that he knew Penzastroy's problems had begun in 2015, but he did not share this with anyone.

This is why new construction investors appeared," he said.

Ilyas Bulatov asked why the authorities had been silent about the risks and had not prevented the emergence of deceived investors if they had known about them.

Olga Tsvetkova, investor of the housing estate Na Strelbishchenskoy, also took the floor at the rally. She briefly spoke about the meeting with the presidential plenipotentiary envoy in the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich during his business trip to Penza.

"The governor Ivan Belozertsev was present there. He said that roadmaps for all the buildings and all the people had been drawn up but we have never seen them. We do not even know what they are and what they look like," she noted.

Commenting on Mikhail Babich's words, who said that what construction investors should do is not to organize rallies but to cooperate with the regional government, which will help them, Olga Tsvetkova reported that she had tried to meet with the governor but failed.

"I tried to make an appointment, called there several days in a row, but they directed me to some person, then to another one and then again to a different one, who could actually meet only in 1.5 months. In general, it is impossible to organize a meeting with the governor," she stated.

The leader of Penza communists, deputy of the regional Legislative Assembly, presidium member of the Central Committee of CPRF Georgy Kamnev drew attention to a political side of the problem of the construction investors.

"In our view, the government made one fundamental, very important error due to which everything went wrong. The government of the Penza region turned the solution of the construction investors' problem into business. [...] Private construction companies were invited to participation in the problem solving. [...] Each of the companies will try to gain maximum profit that is why it will be very difficult to hold negotiations," the leader of Penza communists assumed.

He added that this is the reason of complaints of new developers about the suggested land.

"They will torment the government, rack the budget till the last breath to grab as much as possible," Georgy Kamnev said.

According to him, under the circumstances the state should directly participate in solving the issue of the construction investors by establishing a state company that will finish the construction but instead "the government chose the most complicated, longest and expensive way".

During Georgy Kamnev's speech a bell rang near the venue of the rally and very soon Orthodox believers arrived at the F. Dzerzhinsky cultural centre, where the Epiphany Cathedral is located. After that the events were held simultaneously for about 15 minutes.

In continuation of the rally coordinator of LDPR regional branch Alexander Vasiliev drew attention to the fact that currently the construction investors get support only from opposition.

"The organizers of the rally informed political parties about the event but as they can see the ruling party [United Russia] – the party of technical majority – did not want to come again and to communicate with people," he noted.

Alexander Vasilyev also supported the idea that the solution of the problem should have nothing to do with businesses.

"The government should undertake the difficulty of solving the problem even though it says these are relationships between buyers and sellers. This is an absolutely wrong attitude," he added urging to do everything possible to ensure that "not a single businessman earns money on this issue".

At some point Alexander Vasilyev's speech was interrupted by the voice of Archbishop Seraphim of Penza and Nizhnelomovsk who was turning to participants of the cross procession several metres away from the rally venue.

The coordinator of LDPR regional branch did not get confused and suggested not making guesses about whether it was a coincidence that the venues of the rally and divine service coincided.

At the end of the meeting Dmitry Tsvetkov, investor of the housing estate Na Strelbishchenskoy, turned to those present.

"I would like to thank everyone who found strength, time and desire to come to the rally. But I have a question, where are other people, guys? In the news it will be shown that everyone is satisfied, the issue is being solved. But in fact it is not being solved! I would like to strongly emphasize it once again: no one has ever seen any documents, no one has ever seen any progress. What we get is only words, words, and words. [...] The government will listen to us only when we are united," he summed up.

In total the event lasted more than an hour. All this time the participants were offered tea and pancakes on the occasion of Maslenitsa, while investors' children were playing in the toy house built with the help of parents at the Christmas celebration in January.

In addition to the Communist Party and LDPR the rally was also supported by Left Front activists, Komsomol members, human rights defenders and civil society activists.

As in previous times, none of Penza TV channel film crews were present at the event.