Penza, 21 May 2018. PenzaNews. Civic activist Natalia Podzorova held a one-person protest near the building of the Penza region, during which she was holding posters stuck together reading "Belozertsev should get a Medal of Shame for the road to Chubarovka" and "Belozertsev, hands off the stele Glory to Heroes".

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Commenting on the motives that prompted her to organize the protest action in the centre of Penza, Natalia Podzorova stated that it was "a cry from the heart".

"I am against the transfer of the stele Glory to Heroes because it should remain where it was installed. [...] In the Zhuravli public garden in Prospect Pobedy street there is multilane vehicular traffic, massive pollution and it is even inconvenient to cross the road to approach the monument. The only day when there are many people there is May 9," the activist said to a PenzaNews journalist.

Natalia Podzorova assumed that her father, who had been called to the front at the age of 18, and her grandfather, who had gone missing, would be also against the transfer of the monument from the Sobornaya square, which had been called Sovetskaya until recently, to the area of Prospekt Pobedy street.

Explaining the essence of the second poster she said about issues of residents of the village Chubarovka located in the Kolyshleysky area, including the worn-down road used to drive children to school in the village Krasnaya Gorka.

"It hurts me to see how unfairly current government treats villagers' problems," the interlocutor noted.

According to Natalia Podzorova, in 2015 and 2016 residents sent collective appeals to Governor Ivan Belozertsev asking him to repair the road but it had no effect.

She added that she had tried to personally convey the information about the difficulties faced by the people to the head of the region twice. Moreover, she had been invited to the second reception of citizens only a year later – after repeated complaints to the prosecutor's office because of the unwillingness to communicate on the part of the regional government.

Natalia Podzorova claimed she had personally heard Ivan Belozertsev demand that she should not be given more appointments.

"He behaves as if it is his private shop, as if he is a feudal lord, a slave owner or even a local duke who receives visitors only when he wants," she said.

The activist emphasized that she did not belong to any political party, that was why there was no point looking for any political overtone in her campaign: the protest event was motivated exclusively by a desire to express her civic position and to draw attention of public and authorities to the existing problems.