Penza, 11 March 2018. PenzaNews. About 350 construction investors who invested in new housing and have not received the promised apartments participated in the rally endorsed by the authorities, which was held near the former cinema Rodina in Penza a week before presidential elections – on March 11.

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The event gathered mainly young and middle-aged people; some of them came with children.

The toy house made of foam plastic during the New Year morning performance in January was installed specially for the children on one side of the stage. While adults were discussing current problems, the children were playing inside the house and sliding down a snow hill formed opposite the “777” bar.

The protesters were holding banners reading "The city needs a corrugated board plant, the investors – the housing estate Mayakovsky. It is a box instead of a house", "There is neither a flat, nor money, nor truth", "Nikolaev must be imprisoned", "We say no to housing cooperatives", "Panov! Return the money!", "Stop promising! Start building" and others.

Turning to those present, construction investor of the housing estate Na Strelbishchenskoy Dmitry Tsvetkov drew attention to the situation with the company Penzastroy, which was taken under observation.

"Everyone says: Penzastroy has no money, what can we expect of it?" How can this be true if its staff receive salaries and work properly?" he noted.

Dmitry Tsvetkov also added that to date none of responsible persons had been punished for the failure to comply with the terms of housing commissioning in Penza.

"Where are the regulatory bodies that granted licenses and have not recalled any of them yet? [...] Nobody has been punished and nobody has been held liable," he said.

In turn, representative of the housing estate Raiki Victoria Baikova reminded that the Homeless Regiment movement was established exactly four months ago at the former Rodina cinema but since that time the construction was not renewed and those who suffered losses faced a number of empty promises and outright lies.

Speaking about yellow press delivering various accusations against deceived construction investors she pointed at Alexander Tuzov, ex-officer of the Federal Security Service, member of the public council under the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, founder of an Internet medium, who previously lost a number of suits and owes over 120,000 roubles and currently depends on his wife, a civil servant. At that moment he was standing in the centre of the semi-circle formed by rally participants.

Having heard Tuzov's name, the people hissed him off.

Victoria Baikova noted that the man considers construction investors clowns posting information on the Internet discrediting the activists and invited him to the microphone.

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"I absolutely agree with your fair demands, which you expressed to those empowered and not empowered persons who had created your very sad problem. [...] I will tell you openly: if the government in the face of those who you appeal to in an absolutely not optimal way is responsible for this, the responsibility is only social," the debtor Tuzov dependent on his wife said, then broke forth into rhetorical explanations finishing them only after 5 minutes under the whistling of the crowd.

In continuation of the rally Victoria Baikova drew attention to the fact that none of the authorities whose invitations were signed by almost 300 construction investors came to the venue. Chairman of the Penza region government Nikolai Simonov, speaker of the Legislative Assembly, secretary of the United Russia regional department Valery Lidin, head of the regional Ministry of Construction Alexander Grishaev, Penza mayor Victor Kuvaytsev and director of the LLC Penzastroy Valentin Zhuravlev did not find an opportunity to personally report to people about the work conducted.

According to Igor Zakharov, investor of the housing estate Ternopolsky, one of the reasons of the current situation in the sphere of housing construction is the change of the governor of the Penza region. He noted that under the rule of Vasily Bochkarev Penzastroy had flourished, while after Ivan Belozertsev's accession to power the situation had changed dramatically.

"They do not need the large construction company anymore and they decided to get rid of it. [...] But who is in charge of this? Who suffers consequences of their fight? We do. But if we suffer, the authorities should somehow take care of us," he said.

Those present also had an opportunity to listen to a conversation between Tatyana Chernyshova, investor of the housing estate Raiki, and the leader of the Penza United Russia department, who refused to attend the rally under the pretext of meeting with voters in Serdobsk.

Then it was a turn of Igor Assanov, coordinator of the public movement of construction investors of Russia, who three hours earlier had given a speech at the rally for social justice, to turn to those present. He urged Penza residents to mobilize for action and to make themselves known.

At the end of the rally, the presidium member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, first secretary of the Penza regional committee of the party, member of the Legislative Assembly of the region Georgy Kamnev reminded that he had voiced a suggestion to establish a state construction company long ago. According to him the company would help to avoid such issues with construction investors.

In total, the public event lasted an hour and not everyone managed to express an opinion.

At the same time, the participants were invited to sign the resolution that contained a number of requirements.

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Thus, the construction investors advocated the idea that Governor Ivan Belozertsev should clarify the degree of responsibility of officials for the failure to comply with the terms of execution of his orders, clearly state deadlines for each stage of the work and fulfil the promise given to the investors during their meeting with presidential plenipotentiary envoy in the Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich that all problem buildings of the LLC Penzastroy will be completed by the municipal unitary enterprise Penzgorstroyzakazchik, whose director is deputy of the regional parliament, member of the United Russia party Vadim Borinshtein. Otherwise, that is if the promise is impossible to fulfil, the head of the region should refute his words in public.

The investors demanded that Penza mayor Victor Kuvaytsev should stop hiding plots of land from the developers that are ready to finish the construction and stop avoiding meetings with members of initiative groups.

In addition, Penzastroy clients said that company management should cut high salaries and costs for rental of expensive cars, provide necessary documents and start collaboration with the court-appointed receiver.

Another requirement was addressed to all authorities – the construction investors suggested that they should ask the future president of Russia to allocate funds for the completion of the problem houses from the federal budget.

As during the previous rally, none of the Penza TV channels directed their crews to cover the protest event.