Why is Navalny more long-range than a tractor? Broadcast at 21:05.
Discussed by Igor Yakovenko, Ivan Starikov, Sergei Gulyaev, Sergei Khazov-Kassia
The police released without charge the detained participants of the "tractor march" Valery Ivanchenko and Nikolai Maslov. It is reported by OVD-Info.
In the morning, four farmers were detained by the police. Two of them were left at the traffic police post, while Ivanchenko and Maslov were taken first for a conversation in investigative committee and then to the Criminal Investigation Department. Participants of the farmers' protest march were going to go to the city of Kropotkin to meet with the vice-governor Krasnodar Territory. According to Ivanchenko, they checked the contents of their cars and asked who financed them.
On March 24, a court in Krasnodar arrested Aleksey Volchenko, the organizer of the tractor march, for 15 days for non-payment of alimony. Volchenko himself claimed that he was only one month late in payments and was ready to pay off the debt on the spot.
Video recording of the transmission
The first tractor march took place in August 2016. A column of farmers on tractors moved from the Krasnodar Territory to Moscow to tell President Putin about their problems. AT Rostov region the column was stopped. Many protesters were arrested.
The new tractor march was to begin on March 28. Farmers complained about the arbitrariness of officials and corruption.
The police tried to take the children of the chairman of the Association of Carriers of Russia (OPR) Andrey Bazhutin, who is the leader of the protesting truckers in St. Petersburg, from the house. Human rights activist Dinar Idrisov spoke about this on his VKontakte page.
According to him, the neighbors prevented him from taking the children. Bazhutin's wife, who is seven months pregnant, was discharged from the hospital and returned home, Idrisov wrote.
A day earlier, Bazhutin was arrested for 14 days on charges of driving without a driver's license. Bazhutin himself said that he learned that he had been deprived of his rights for a year and a half on the morning of March 27. Bazhutin clarified that there were no receipts of violation of the rules traffic and received no subpoena.
March 27 at different cities Russian truckers began protests against the abolition of tariffs of the Platon payment system.
Much of the equipment stolen from Radio Liberty correspondents Sergei Khazov-Kassia and Andrei Kostyanov, who were beaten and robbed on Tuesday morning in the town of Kropotkin, Krasnodar Territory, has been returned to the hotel where they were staying.
Journalists said they did not know who did it. When they were giving statements to the police, one of the investigators called them to inspect the crime scene. In the room where Kostyanov stayed, a box was found in which there was a camera, a computer and other equipment.
The hotel staff insist that they did not see strangers and do not know who could bring things into the room. Khazov-Kassia emphasizes that the hotel is small and that it is impossible to pass by the reception desk without being noticed.
Earlier, police officers told reporters that the footage from the surveillance cameras around the hotel near which the attack occurred had not been preserved.
The attack on Radio Liberty correspondents who traveled to Kropotkin to cover the farmers' protests took place on Tuesday morning. At the exit from the hotel, they were beaten by unknown people in masks. They stole a computer, filming equipment and personal belongings of journalists and fled in a minibus. Although Khazov-Kassia managed to photograph the vehicle, police say they still have not been able to locate it.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Thomas Kent called it unacceptable " robbery” on journalists and demanded that the incident be investigated with an emphasis on the role of the local police.
Why did Navalny succeed in what farmers, tractor drivers and truckers fail to do, what is the role of journalists and the degree of danger for them when covering mass protests? - journalists Igor Yakovenko, Sergey Khazov - Cassia, politician Ivan Starikov, social activist Sergey Gulyaev are discussing.
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Today, the second "tractor march" was supposed to start from the Kavkazsky district of the Krasnodar Territory. Farmers from all over the Kuban are dissatisfied with the fact that they cannot exercise the right to own land. Large agricultural holdings, according to protesters, seize land from local residents, while the police, the prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee are inactive.
The first time the farmers tried to drive tractors to Moscow in August last year. Then they managed to get to the Rostov region. This time, the local authorities did not even let the participants of the event move. One of the organizers, Aleksey Volchenko, was put in a special detention center for 12 days a few days before the march for a month's delay in paying alimony. Other leaders of the movement were not allowed to the gathering place under various pretexts. In addition, in Kropotkin beaten journalists from Radio Liberty who came to cover the event. "Secret" learned the details from the marchers, who have not yet been detained.
Elena Dryukova
The head of a peasant farm in the village of Mirsky, Caucasus region
In the morning I was called to the tax office, but I still managed to get to the collection point. All roads to it were blocked, dismantled railroad crossing. I had to go by goat paths, along blurred roads. As a result, 60 people arrived - they all live nearby. Everyone who traveled from afar was detained. In fact, we were not going to go anywhere on tractors today. We have a sowing season, we need to be in the field. We just wanted to show our authorities that there were much more of us: instead of 17 tractors, as last year, - 60. And we also wanted to say that we are giving the authorities two months to solve our problems, otherwise we will change economic demands to political ones and we will fight already differently. How? Give in the face. In Russia, this is the only way problems are solved. But, apparently, it is pointless to talk with our government at all. They will hold on until the end. The governor is an oligarch, the head of the district is an oligarch, the head of a settlement is an oligarch. Tkachev (Alexander Tkachev, Minister Agriculture, ex-governor of the Krasnodar Territory. - Approx. "Secret") lies that grains were handed over for trillions of rubles. Medvedev, like Cheburashka, repeats after him. At the same time, there is no money in the budget of my settlement - everything was stolen. From 16,000 hectares, we should receive 8 million rubles in land tax, but we receive only 5 million. As a result, the budget allows us to spend only 5,000 rubles a day on the life of the village. And we have a depreciation of water pipes - 80%. I have, thank God, the water is turned off only at night. But in some other areas it is never there at all. We don't have any new plans yet. It seems that there should be a meeting with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, behind whose back our former prosecutor Leonid Korzhinek [hid] (https://chaika.navalny.com/). He did some business here and disappeared in Moscow. Instead, they sent us a prosecutor from Kaliningrad region, who for some reason has not been able to take up his duties for two months. Although Alexander Bastrykin received us a week ago. He very quickly delved into all our problems, looked menacingly at his subordinates, promised that he would make them pay all compensation for illegally initiated cases. We, joyful, return to ourselves - but nothing has changed here. The investigators tell us: “Did Bastrykin promise you something? Well, go to him again and ask.
Nikolai Maslov
The head of the peasant farm in the village of Dmitrievskaya, Caucasus region
This is my second day in a row at the police station. Yesterday I was stopped at a traffic police post - supposedly my car fits the orientation of a car that fled the scene of an accident. I was thrashed for several hours until the journalists from Radio Liberty arrived, who were beaten today. The police saw the cameras, lost interest and let go. Today, the gathering for the march was scheduled for 10 am. But at 9:30 I was again detained at the traffic police post. First they searched the car, then they took it to the Kavkazsky District Police Department. There, one employee talked to me, then another. I took the 51st article (refusal to testify. - Approx. "Secret") and I'm waiting for the third. In 2013, I arbitrarily used an abandoned plot of land where I planted wheat. Then it turned out that he belonged to the local military unit. An administrative case was brought against me, two fines were issued, which I paid. Now they are trying to reopen that case and reclassify it as a criminal case. They say that they "investigated badly." I'm still with the police and don't know what's going on at the gathering place for farmers. But there is a feeling that the march was disrupted. Volchenko has been in jail for the fourth day. Another organizer, Oleg Petrov, was also detained allegedly for large-scale fraud. Lyudmila Kushnareva from Psekhako was blocked from leaving the village. The guys from Novopokrovskaya and Pavlovskaya were detained in Tikhoretsk. Almost all potential participants of the tractor march are involved in various investigative actions. The police officers were ordered to detain us by any means. We haven't made any new plans yet. To do this, it will be necessary for everyone to come together, if we are allowed to do this. But, to be honest, I already worry not only about my freedom, but also about the life and safety of my family. In recent weeks, two or three people in civilian clothes have been constantly on duty near my yard - either police officers or bandits. They walk around, look into the yard, which I have not fenced. I even called the presidential administration, asking for protection - they can arrange any provocations. I approached one of the attendants and asked what he was doing here. He answered: yes, I came to my uncle, he lives in the house on the corner. Only in the house he pointed to, no one has been living for a long time. I'm sorry, the police are calling me here, I have to say goodbye.
Nina Karpenko
The head of the peasant farm in the village of Privolnaya, Kanevsky district
I am now far from the Caucasian. I was not allowed to march by the police. Blocked the car, called. I do not want to talk about this. It's not about whether I went or not. Our goal is not to hold a march, but to achieve the implementation of the law in the Krasnodar Territory, to stop raider seizures. And the march is a forced measure, since the rights of the population are systematically violated in the Kuban. I am a law-abiding person, I do not want to be the opposition. But I want my rights to be protected at the state level, and not to be robbed of the whole people. Ex-governor Alexander Tkachev made a farm of 700,000 hectares during his reign. How is that even possible? At the same time, one farmer from the village of Chelbasskaya has not been able to allocate his and his parent's land for several years. But the regional administration does not deal with our problems. The prosecutor's office and the Investigative Committee do not consider our complaints, they only unsubscribe. They protect only the property rights of moneybags. We are trying to change the situation not only by marches. I have already written to the State Duma and the Federation Council about changing the legislation. Now I will write to the Constitutional Court. The rights of large, vertically integrated enterprises must be limited, because they only bring devastation to the indigenous population of the villages. For them, agriculture is just a business. For us, it's personal. The work of the hospital, for example, depends on the success of our work. Until the 2000s, we had 10-15 doctors, and now only nursing care remains.
Cover photo: Alina Desyatnichenko / Sekret Firmy
UPDATE
Oleg Petrov, a member of the Polite Farmers and Tractor March movement, was detained on March 29 after a search by the FSB in own house declared a hunger strike. about it on my page Petrov's colleague and colleague Nikolay Maslov reported on Facebook. " Petrov is charged under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud on an especially large scale” - approx.Activatica). Oleg Petrov went on a hunger strike in protest", - wrote Maslov.
In the photo: Oleg Petrov, a member of the Polite Farmers and Tractor March movement. Photo source:Facebook
At home, Petrov left a wife with a baby born "less than two weeks ago," Maslov recalled. He noted that the criminal case previously initiated against Petrov is under the personal control of the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, about which the security official personally informed the farmer. But " instead of protection from the arbitrariness of the law enforcement system, we received another criminal case", noted Maslov.
"I personally cannot imagine how a woman who has not yet recovered from childbirth can withstand such an emotional burden. The further activity of the farm, and, accordingly, the survival of the peasant family, are under threat. Anyone who can assist in the return of Oleg Petrov to freedom, respond", Maslov urged.
Petrov's lawyer, Vladimir Shamshurov, told Activatica that his client went on a "normal" hunger strike, not a "dry" one - the detainee does not eat food, but drinks water. " Hunger strike declared immediately after detention", Shamshurov said.
A video of the detention of the Tractor March participants on March 28 appeared on the network. It also depicts the detention of Oleg Petrov.
What was previously known
March 29 was marked by another detention of a Tractor March participant. After a search in his house, one of the members of the Polite Farmers movement, Oleg Petrov, was detained.
According to an Activatica source in law enforcement agencies, the farmer is charged with article 159, part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Fraud on an especially large scale." Under Article 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation "Grounds for Detaining a Suspect," Petrov was detained for two days. He is in the temporary detention center No. 1 of the city of Kropotkin.
Meanwhile, the details of the search in Petrov's house became known. One of the farmer's neighbors, who became an unwitting witness to the action, told Activatica that it was like a special operation. " The roads were blocked, there were about 30 policemen or "FSB-shnikov" standing at the entrance, I don't understand. Everything was noisy, loud, open, despite the early hour.(the search took place around 6:00 - approx. Activatica ). Oleg asked the security forces not to break into the house - he infant, he is only a week old, - humanly asked to be quieter, but their pleas only provoked", - said the interlocutor.
After the search, law enforcement officers took with them accounting documents related to the activities of the farm, and personal records of Popov and his wife Elena, the woman herself said. According to her, not a single seized paper refers either to Droganov himself or to his case.
In order for the farm not to go bankrupt, Elena Popova, who had a ten-day-old child in her arms, had to take over the leadership of the peasant farm - her family is responsible for workers who have no other job, Popova said.
It also became known that Nikolai Maslov was fined a thousand rubles under Article 17.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation "Failure to comply with the legal requirements of the prosecutor, investigator, interrogating officer or official conducting proceedings on the case of administrative offense". at the dealership
The Kropotkin World Court explained that Maslov did not appear for interrogation at the appointed time - at 9:00 on March 28, that is, at the time when the "Tractor March" began.
***
Two of the four Kuban farmers detained today, March 28, in Tikhoretsk, were taken to the Investigative Committee, the Kavkazsky Uzel publication reports, citing Valery Ivanchenko, one of the detainees. Among those escorted to the UK are Nikolai Maslov and Oleg Petrov. Maslov is charged under article 17.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation "Failure to comply with the legal requirements of the prosecutor, investigator, interrogating officer", Petrov has not yet been charged.
A law enforcement source told Activatica that Maslov was supposed to appear on March 28 at 9:00 in the UK to testify in a case initiated against a farmer in 2012: the farmer is suspected of unauthorized capture land plot owned by the Ministry of Defense. Maslov himself claims that on March 24, when he received a summons for interrogation, he warned the investigators that he would not be able to appear and asked to reschedule the date.
Maslov claims that this case against him was closed: he paid a fine back in 2013, stopped working on the site and " he is so abandoned". "The military has no claims against me' added the farmer.
During the interrogation, the farmer's condition deteriorated sharply. Maslov complained that he had been at the police station since 10 am - since that time he had not eaten or drank anything.
In the photo: a farmer, a member of the Polite Farmers movement, Nikolai Maslov
At 17:40, Oleg Petrov was interrogated, and then, accompanied by FSB officers, he was sent home, where he was searched. According to Petrov, his legal status in the case is unclear to him. " I am not under arrest, no measure of restraint was chosen, but I seem to be detained, I am going to investigative measures", Petrov said in an interview with Novaya Gazeta.
What the law enforcers are trying to find at his house, the farmer could not say. " Until I was even given a search warrant", - commented the farmer.
In addition to Maslov, Petrov and Ivanchenko, Kuban lawyer Sergei Zemtsov was also detained. According to him, earlier he wrote a statement to the police about an attempt to set fire to his car and on the fact of the attack; Zemtsov was summoned to testify precisely on the morning of March 28, the day the "march" was to be held.
The start of the so-called Tractor March, apparently a continuation of the Russian protests, is being postponed: the police detained the participants of the event, preventing the cars from moving, a source among farmers told Activatica. "All members of the Polite Farmers movement were taken to the police station," the source said.
According to him, the Tractor March was supposed to begin on March 28, at 10:00 in the Kazanskaya village of the Kavkazsky district of the Krasnodar Territory. Farmers on their tractors gathered at the local recreation center; earlier, the police and local officials arrived at the meeting place. When the decision was made to start moving, the authorities asked the tractor drivers to linger. The Notebook publication reports, referring to one of the leaders of Polite Farmers, Oleg Popov, that officials suggested that farmers wait for some " big people", who allegedly agreed to settle the problems of the farmers. They agreed, but no one came to the farmers.
Popov said that, according to his information, the authorities understood the head of the Ministry of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev as "big people" - however, he decided to ignore the Tractor March and headed for the city of Tikhoretsk, where he would soon meet with local milkmaids and farmers who "would tell him that everyone okay, no problem."
Activatica's interlocutor pointed out that Tkachev's visit would film television and create a "positive picture" in the region.
The 2016 tractor march was stopped by the police shortly after departure Photo: Anna Artemyeva/Novaya Gazeta
Popov believes that by persuading the authorities tried to play for time and thus disrupt the Tractor March. Detentions of tractor drivers began immediately after the farmers realized that they would not wait for "big people".
"They detained everyone, absolutely all the “polite farmers”. Some were taken to the police, some to the bailiffs, some to the tax office. I was also detained. I am currently in local branch police", Popov said.
According to Popov, the holding of the Tractor March remains in question. "Today it will not take place," Popov commented.
Note that the organization of the event began to interfere last week. On March 24, Oleksiy Volchenko, the leader of Polite Farmers, was detained and charged with non-payment of alimony. The activist was arrested for 12 days. Volchenko himself said that he had only a monthly debt; Popov added that the detention was due to the fact that his colleague had the documents necessary for the "march" in his hands.
On March 28, in the morning in the city of Kropotkin in the Krasnodar Territory, unknown people carried out a daring attack on the journalists of Radio Liberty. The injured are Sergey Khazov-Kassia and Andrey Kostyanov.
The resonance around the August tractor march helped Kuban farmers achieve justice in resolving land issues. Oleg Petrov, a participant in this action, said that after August, the courts began to make decisions in favor of farmers, and many of them refused further protests. However, the actions of their opponents, who decided to put pressure on the farmers through the initiation of criminal cases, changed the peaceful mood of the farmers. A new tractor march is scheduled for March 28, 2017.
Kuban farmers on March 28 intend to gather for a new tractor march. The organizers of the event informed the Club of Regions about this.
Recall that Kuban farmers held the first large-scale tractor march on Moscow in the summer. True, they could only get to the Rostov region, where many participants in the action were detained. However, this march helped to change the situation.
One of the participants in the summer march, Oleg Petrov, a farmer from the village of Kazanskaya, told the Club of Regions that after the courts began to make decisions in favor of farmers, neither he nor other farmers from his village, whom he calls "the most active and uncompromising ”, were no longer going to protest actions. However, recently their attitude has changed radically. Petrov said that this happened after his wife, Elena Petrova, who, as a lawyer, defended the interests of farmers in courts, was accused of fraud. Petrov stressed that he and his wife "learned about it from TV."
A criminal case of fraud against Elena Petrova and another participant in the tractor march, Nikolai Borodin, was initiated on January 25. Borodin is accused of having allegedly illegally and at a reduced price leased the land of farmers who transferred powers of attorney to their shares to Petrova. She is charged with complicity in fraud. The case was initiated at the request of two local residents.
Borodin has already stated that he does not consider himself guilty. He connects the appearance of accusations against him with participation in the protest farming movement.
Oleg Petrov called all the accusations against his wife "nonsense". He noted that his wife, using powers of attorney issued in her name for land, represented the interests of farmers in courts, and at least 15 decisions were made in these cases. “No one handed her the decision to initiate a criminal case, but the local TV channel has already reported that she is a fraudster. I have her in her ninth month of pregnancy, so I myself ran to the Investigative Committee and found out why they say that she is a fraudster. In the decision to initiate a criminal case, which was finally issued, it is written that she allegedly received powers of attorney, I quote, “in a place unidentified by the investigation at an unspecified time.” But how could she obtain powers of attorney at an unspecified time and place, if they were notarized? Despite the fact that the people who issued powers of attorney, whose interests she defended with these powers of attorney, they do not dispute this, ”Petrov said.
The farmer is sure that the case was opened in order to "sling mud at the participants of the tractor march."
“After the tractor march, the court began to rule in our favor. After that, in my favor, in favor of other guys from our village, more than 15 decisions were made by regional and district courts. So we didn't go to any more marches and protests. Apparently, our opponents, who took the land from us, did not give it back, they squeezed it, they lost control over the courts, and therefore they decided to put pressure on us through criminal cases,” Petrov said.
The organizers of the march told the "Club of Regions" that they could not yet say how many farmers would take part in it. The route of the action has not yet been determined. However, farmers do not rule out that, like last time, they will not be allowed to move beyond the Rostov region.
print versionRelated materials
Krasnodar region
Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratiev does not have the resources to solve the long-standing problem of raider seizures of land, the reaction to which was the protest of farmers and even the suicide of one of them. This opinion is shared by political scientist Gennady Podlesny, who notes that the current head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexander Tkachev is behind the problem. But political scientist Alexei Mukhin believes that the federal center is “closely” watching how Kondratyev handles “this case”.Krasnodar region
Kuban farmers, who staged a march to Moscow, where they were going to personally complain to Vladimir Putin about corruption and raider seizure of land, will not be able to get the authorities to solve their problems in this way, experts interviewed by the Club of Regions are sure. At the same time, political scientists expressed the opinion that the regional authorities, which are actively preventing the actions of farmers, have themselves made the topic one of the main ones on the agenda of the federal media.Krasnodar region
Kuban farmers were unable to hold a rally against the raider seizure of land: the place of the planned action was surrounded by police, and the organizer was arrested for a day. At the same time, Vice Governor Andrei Korobko reported on the successes in the fight for the rights of farmers. Who harms and who helps the Kuban farmers, tried to find out the "Club of Regions".The main thing
Governor Alexander Burkov proposed to transfer 50% of the transport tax to the budget of Omsk. Currently, this tax is fully credited to the regional level. Experts note that Burkov's decision to increase local budget revenues stimulates city authorities to increase tax collection. At the same time, the receipt additional funds to the budget of Omsk for roads will free up part of the city's own funds and direct them to solve other problems. Political analysts say that Burkov's initiative testifies to the constructive relationship between the regional government and the mayor's office, which was not the case under previous governors.Experts: the effect of the appearance of governors at the head of the regional departments of the United Russia will depend on the specifics of the regions
According to media reports, governors in a number of regions will head regional branches « United Russia". According to experts, the decision to return to this practice was dictated by the preparations for the elections to the State Duma in 2021. and the need to build a working party system. Political analysts believe that United Russia is more interested in such cooperation, which will be able to "attach itself to the rating of governors, thereby stabilizing the party's position in a number of regions." At the same time, for governors, direct association with a party, depending on the specifics of the region, can bring both pluses and minuses. Among those who were offered to head the regional departments of the United Russia are the governor of Primorsky Krai Oleg Kozhemyako, the head of Bashkiria Radiy Khabirov, the governor of the Murmansk region Andrey Chibis, the governor of the Trans-Baikal Territory Alexander Osipov, the head of Kalmykia Batu Khasikov and the governor of the Kirov region Igor Vasiliev. The head of Tuva, Sholban Kara-ool, intends to dismiss the government of the region. The Tuvan governor associated the renewal of his cabinet with the election of a new parliament. Experts associate Kara-ool's decision with the "catch-up" that Kara-ool received from Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Earlier, Medvedev, speaking about the republic's lag in the construction of social facilities, said: "So, maybe this is not a problem of the general backwardness of the region, but of the backwardness of the team?" Political scientists note that “regions like Tuva need to be attentive to signals from the federal government” in order to effectively interact with it, and Kara-ool personally needs this in order to stay in his post. At the same time, observers believe that there will be no real renewal of personnel in Tuva, but "the same people will be shuffled."The forthcoming Tractor March on March 28 seems to have already quarreled with the farmers of the Kuban and Stavropol regions. Krasnodar activists initially took the most uncompromising position: they demand radical changes to federal law No. 101-FZ "On the turnover of agricultural land", which would moderate the appetites of large agricultural holdings. In Stavropol, however, farmers have a more local task - to cancel the "Law of Fat Cats" adopted in November, which makes it almost impossible to allocate land shares.
AKKOR sits on two chairs?
The first "Tractor March", we recall, took place last August - then four dozen farmers started from the village of Kazanskaya, who wanted to get to Moscow and get a meeting with Putin. They promised to tell him about the arbitrariness of large agricultural holdings that impose their rules on the southern agricultural regions.
The farmers were also joined by activists from the Association of Carriers of Russia (an independent trade union of truckers).
The participants of the Tractor March, however, did not get beyond the border of the Rostov region, where they were detained for an unsanctioned rally. And immediately the idea was born to hold a second similar march, but on a larger scale.
Date is March 28th. It was officially announced back in December at an extraordinary congress of farmers and owners of land shares in the South of Russia, which was held in Stavropol. The congress was organized by the Stavropol branch of the Association of Peasant and farms(AKKOR).
It was announced that farmers from Kuban, Stavropol, Don, as well as from Tula and Voronezh region. Truckers protesting against the Platon system and even Kuban Cossacks from the Yekaterinodar Cossack Department are going to support the farmers.
Last week, AKKOR held an All-Russian Congress in Moscow, attended by delegates from all over the country. Including from the Krasnodar Territory, who united in the informal movement "Polite Farmers" led by Alexei Volchenko.
Alexey Volchenko. Photo: Radio Liberty
They intended from a high rostrum to announce plans for the "Tractor March", inviting farmers from all over the country to it. In addition, Polite Farmers activists have prepared several proposals for federal law No. 101-FZ "On the circulation of agricultural land", which would moderate the appetites of large agricultural holdings.
First, limit maximum size the total area of agricultural land that may be owned or leased by one citizen or one legal entity(no more than 20 thousand hectares).
Secondly, to introduce a “settlement requirement” for the heads of the peasant economy and the owners of agricultural enterprises engaged in crop production: they must permanently reside within the boundaries of the territories municipality on which the farmland data is located.
Thirdly, to introduce restrictions on the amount of rent for agricultural land that is in municipal or state ownership: it should not be less than rent for land shares owned collectively by shareholders.
However, members of the Polite Farmers were simply not allowed to attend the AKKOR congress. An alarm bell that the farming movement has begun to be divided into “right” and “wrong”. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the chairman of AKKOR is Vladimir Plotnikov, the current State Duma deputy from United Russia in the Volgograd region.
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Vladimir Plotnikov. Photo: www.newsko.ru
Of course, the United Russia deputy is not interested in stirring up protest moods. It is no coincidence that in Plotnikov's report at the farmers' congress (at which, by the way, the Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachev was present), not a word was heard either about the "Tractor March" or about other protests of the southern farmers.
Plotnikov did not mention the sad results of the 2016 All-Russian Agricultural Census, according to which the number of farms in Russia has decreased by two-thirds over the past ten years.
February 22 at Mineralnye Vody members of Polite Farmers and the Association of Carriers of Russia were to hold a press conference on preparations for the upcoming Tractor March. Information about this began to spread through social networks, the author of these lines received an invitation personally from Alexei Volchenko.
It was surprising, however, that Krasnodar activists were supposed to come to meet with journalists in Stavropol. But it was even more striking that on the eve of the press conference, on the evening of February 21, the chieftain of the Caucasian Cossack line, Sergei Popov, began to massively distribute a warning in social networks - do not go, they say, to a briefing of Krasnodar activists.
« The purpose of the disseminated information is an attempt to intercept the work of the farming movement of the Stavropol Territory by certain political forces in order to realize their political ideas. This provocative information and event can be used by the apparatus of the governor of the Stavropol Territory and the regional Duma to discredit the regional farming movement", - writes Sergey Popov.
It is unclear, however, what relation the governor of Stavropol has to the "Polite Farmers" of the Kuban. But it is clear that the upcoming "Tractor March" has already become a bargaining chip in political games within the split farming movement.
In general, the promised press conference on February 22 in Minvody did not take place. On the eve of “Polite farmers who intended to leave the Kuban for the Stavropol Territory, were blocked at home by special services. At least, this version was presented to journalists by Alexei Volchenko.
Is this not another proof that the press conference in the Mineralnye Vody is not a “provocation”, as they tried to present in social networks. Not only the Krasnodar security forces, but also the Stavropol officials took it seriously.
“Polite farmers” were supposed to meet with journalists on Wednesday at 11:00, and the day before, the Stavropol media from the White House sent out an invitation to a meeting of the working group on land disputes, which was to be held at 8 am at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Territory.
Why not an attempt to "quench the wave"? Moreover, the activists of the regional branch of AKKOR (who did not plan to be in the Mineralnye Vody anyway) were invited to the meeting. main topic for discussion is the “Fat Cat Law” passed last November, which increases minimum size allotment of a land plot from an array in collective-shared ownership. From the current 30 to 2500 hectares.
It is this law that causes heated protests among Stavropol farmers. And, it seems, it was precisely because of this law that a demarcation took place between the "agrarian" activists of Stavropol and Kuban. For the former, the main task today is the abolition of the "Law of Fat Cats", and for the latter, the goal in itself is the holding of the "Tractor March".
“They just kick people out of lawlessness”
This is a quote from the speech of Governor Vladimir Vladimirov at a meeting of the working group on land disputes, which met at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory. He explained to the farmers, who came to the meeting several dozens from all over the region, that the "Law of Fat Cats" was an attempt to protect the interests of ordinary landowners in the fight against agricultural holdings. And not vice versa, as the farmers themselves allegedly understand.
It is unlikely that the governor himself does not understand the essence of the law he signed - rather, he is simply trying to prove to the farmers that black is white. Although his arguments are easily refuted by the dry figures of "land" statistics. And they were brought to the meeting not by some oppositionist, but by an official - the head of the department for the circulation of agricultural land of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Stavropol Territory, Vladimir Bolvachev.
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Vladimir Bolvachev. Photo: mshsk.ru
According to him, today in the region 11.3 thousand land plots are in collective ownership, and only 320 have an area of more than 2,500 hectares (that is, their shareholders, according to the Fat Cat Law, can exercise the right to allocate their shares). Their total area is 3.4 million hectares. At the same time, the remaining sections ( with total area 1.5 million hectares) have an area of less than 2,500 hectares each, which means that their shareholders are also deprived of the right to change the tenant.
According to Bolvachev, a month in the regional working group on land disputes, more than 35 appeals were received, which relate specifically to the allocation of shares. At the same time, according to the regional departments of agriculture, at least 1,100 landowners (including more than 200 farms) could potentially have problems. More than 100,000 hectares, for which more than 150 lease agreements have been issued, have become “controversial” after the adoption of a law that makes it almost impossible to allocate plots.
The largest number shareholders who have problems (that is, they want to change the tenant, but do not gain enough, in accordance with the Fat Cat Law, the amount of land of 2,500 hectares) - in the Turkmen and Kursk regions. There are more than 250 and more than 200 such people here, respectively. A little less - in Andropovsky, Arzgirsky and Petrovsky districts. And this number will increase, because not all farms have reached the deadline for reissuing lease agreements.
“They just grab and grab and grab!”
At the end of last year, the prosecutor's office of the Stavropol Territory filed an administrative lawsuit with the governor and the Duma, demanding that the "Law of Fat Cats" be repealed. The prosecutor's office points out that this law discriminates against small owners, but plays into the hands of large agricultural holdings.
Vladimir Trukhachev, deputy of the Regional Duma, also spoke about this at the meeting. According to him, today large “investors” from other regions – Dagestan, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria – are massively buying up land in the Stavropol Territory, who then invest almost nothing in the development of farms, only pumping money out of them.
As an example, he cited Aslan Karakotov (North Caucasian Agrokhim group), to whom, according to Trukhachev, there are already 16 farms in the region, and Magomed Kaitov (MRSK North Caucasus”), which has bought only three farms so far.
« Yes, Karakotov and Kaitov are not our people today, they do not want to work for the Stavropol Territory and for our peasant. This is disgusting and bad!", Trukhachev said emotionally.
He also criticized the local latifundists. Thus, the agricultural company Zolotaya Niva (part of the Agrico group, owned by the Dutch company Martinico Beheer), according to the deputy, “ only grabs, grabs and grabs».
He stated that in the village of Kugulta (Grachevsky district), Zolotaya Niva created only 69 jobs in its subsidiary (the company's website says 140 employees). The rest of the inhabitants, in the absence of work, either leave or get drunk. Trukhachev knows what he is talking about: he headed the Kugultinsky Butter and Cheese Plant and the Department of Agriculture in the Grachevsky District. And, according to him, in those years more than two thousand people were employed in agricultural production in Kugulta.
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Vladimir Trukhachev. Photo: dumask.ru
The deputy also criticized Vladimir Polyakov's Energomera group of companies, which also has a developed agribusiness. And he also cited as an example the village of Konstantinovskoye from his constituency, where in 2008 the city-forming agricultural enterprise Khleborob became part of the agricultural holding.
« Polyakov should work harder. So that I don’t run after meeting with fellow countrymen to the feldsher-obstetric station, which cannot be entered. And the door does not open there, and there is no heating there!", - said Vladimir Trukhachev.
Who can curb the appetites of the agrarian monopolists? Of course, only the governor. But, alas, he plays on their field. After an extremely emotional speech by Vladimir Trukhachev, the head of the region gave the floor to several farmers who came from different regions. And they talked about the same thing that the experienced deputy was talking about - about pressure from agricultural holdings.
After listening to half a dozen short speeches, Vladimirov suddenly declared: We all choose expressions, and expressions no longer need to be selected. let's already let's finish with the cameras and talk frankly».
After that, the journalists were expelled from the meeting room of the Ministry of Agriculture. 0
