Sports / Feature and Column
Old Believers sect fears for homes
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-13 18:50
LAW AT WORK AND NOT
After Sochi was proclaimed the 2014 Olympics host last week, the local
administration sought to reassure residents.
Alexei Khraban, who is in charge of Olympic preparations in the mayor's
office, said whatever happened in the area would be done in accordance
with Russian law.
"No one will be forced out or have anything taken away," he told a press
conference.
But laws in Russia can change quickly, with parliament rubber-stamping
presidential proposals, and corruption is widespread. Property rights are
a grey area in Russia, and few believe they will be protected.
"We live in an unstable country. We don't know what to expect," said
local Old Believer Lyuba Logareva.
A major problem is that most Novoimeretinskaya Bukhta residents do not
have documents showing that they own their property. Those trying to
register their land face Russia's notorious red tape and protracted
delays.
"If the law says it is our property it will be harder to talk to us from
a position of force, so we are trying to make it legal," said local
resident Alexander Koval.
The local authorities had until recently been discouraging people from
legalising their property, saying there is an unwritten moratorium on
Novoimeretinskaya Bukhta, Korutun adds.
Korutun says Old Believers are not against holding the Olympics in the
Sochi area.
But he added: "If you move these old people out of here they are going to
die. It is like a tree - if you take up its roots it dies."
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