Acting Kursk governor calls residents’ demands for increased compensation for losses from Ukraine’s offensive ‘not entirely fair’
Alexander Khinshtein, the acting governor of Russia’s Kursk region, called the demands of Sudzha residents for increased compensation for property lost during Ukraine’s offensive “not entirely fair.”
Khinshtein met with residents from border areas on December 28 and later published a video of the meeting, which he described as “unedited.” “I want everyone to see and hear for themselves how the dialogue with people really unfolded — without interpretations or subjective judgments,” he wrote.
During the meeting, activist Valery Moiseyev spoke on behalf of Sudzha residents. “We had everything. We didn’t ask for anything, we supported the army, we had beautiful homes, gardens — everything. We didn’t ask the authorities for anything. […] And now we’re being given certificates, but all we’ll get are bare walls; there’s nothing there,” Moiseyev said. He added that he and others cannot afford loans to repair or furnish new homes. Moiseyev proposed increasing compensation by 825,000 rubles (about $7,500), bringing the total to 1 million rubles (about $9,200).
Khinshtein rejected the proposal, saying, “You say: we lived without asking the state for anything. It feels as if you existed on an uninhabited island until 2022, as if there were no roads, no hospitals, no schools, and no state assistance. And as if, in the end, even pensions weren’t paid by the state but came from nowhere. That’s not true. The notion that ‘the state didn’t help us before, but now it should’ — I think that’s not entirely fair.”
He then asked representatives of nine municipalities present at the meeting to vote on whether they supported Moiseyev’s position or his own. None raised their hands in support of Moiseyev.
Residents of the Kursk region’s border areas, who lost their homes during Ukraine’s August offensive, had long demanded the housing certificates promised by Khinshtein’s predecessor, Alexey Smirnov. Their efforts included protests and appeals to President Vladimir Putin.
The government eventually issued the certificates, though recipients are only allowed to use them to purchase real estate, as stipulated in the related decree.
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