A group of Ukraine war veterans joined protesters in Western Siberia’s Tyumen region over the weekend, accusing local officials of unlawfully seizing their homes amid a road construction dispute.
Around 50 protesters, including five men dressed in military uniforms, gathered in the city of Tyumen on Saturday to protest what they claim to be a violation of their constitutional rights, local media reported.
“Local authorities don’t hear us. They’re seizing our land,” said one of the uniformed men in a video published by the news website Nashgorod.ru. “There’s no dialogue with the authorities.”
The outlet reported that the local government filed a lawsuit against a businessman who was said to have donated nearly two dozen homes in the village of Perevalovo to war veterans and their widows. The homes were allegedly constructed despite previously approved plans for a road to be built in the same spot.
Authorities told local media that they do not plan to seize the Perevalovo village homes, but the veterans said they would continue to protest until the road construction plans are changed.
“Distrust of officials forces us to rally. We have no trust in the Investigative Committee or the prosecutor’s office,” the same uniformed veteran at Saturday’s protest told Nashgorod.ru
Federal investigators said earlier this month that law enforcement officials in the Tyumen region opened a criminal probe into fraud against the businessman who donated the properties. Local media identified him as Stanislav Borisov.
A petition against the current road construction plans was signed by around 500 people, according to one of the protest organizers.
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