"Moscow does not believe in tears": are Moscow officials trying to evict people to the street?

In 1931, the Progress publishing house was established in the USSR, where professional translators from many countries of the world worked, who were allocated apartments in Moscow. In 1990, with the permission of the USSR State Printing House, the publishing house revised the basics of providing housing, which was under its full economic management, because government agencies stopped ordering books, and foreign specialists began to return en masse to their historical homeland.

Accordingly, in order to preserve the activities of Progress, the administration of the capital began to provide housing (on the basis of new legislation) to employees involved in the publishing house — citizens born in the USSR and the RSFSR. The salary here was not the highest, but specialists went to work in a publishing house, as they could get housing.

The change of the "titular" owners of apartments took place in the following order: from 1982 to 2009, no one's rights to apartments were registered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRN). From 2009 to 2011, the owner of Moscow, from 2011 to 2019, the owner is Russian Federation, from 2019-present owner — Moscow again.

And since 2010, litigation has begun with respect to the apartments in which employees live. Thus, in the course of arbitration proceedings, the court established: The disputed property (apartments) could become the property of the Moscow government only after observing the transfer procedure provided for by Presidential Decree No. 114-rp of March 18, 1992.

The officials have not submitted any documents testifying to the transfer of ownership rights by the state to the city of Moscow to the above-mentioned apartments occupied during the court proceedings. The literal interpretation of the decisions of the arbitration courts that have not been canceled objectively indicates that the city is not and could not be the owner of the apartments in which citizens live, the lawyers hired by the evicted tenants insist.

The restoration in the USRN of the record of Moscow's right to apartments untied the hands of officials, and in 2019 they deprived residents of the opportunity to pay for utilities by providing false information to the MFC in the Troparevo- Nikulino district that apartments in which employees have been living for decades are FREE.

Representatives of the City Property Department continued their illegal actions on November 5, 2019. So, employees of the City Property Management in the capital's DGI CJSC have been harassing citizens for almost a month. At every attempt by residents to leave the apartment, representatives of the department broke into the rooms, prevented the doors from closing, prevented citizens from entering their homes.

At the same time, they told the tenants that the apartments in which they live are the property of the city of Moscow, and representatives of the "owner" (DGI) will open these apartments and evict the tenants, despite the absence of relevant court decisions. Announcements were posted on the doors that they would be opened and alarm systems would be installed in the apartments.

In turn, Moscow also refuses to consider the issue of concluding relevant contracts with the residents of the house, despite numerous appeals from citizens and the Progress Publishing Group to all authorities since 1991.

In particular, Progressives wrote to the chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin, to Roskomimushchestvo, to the Federal Agency for State Property Management, to the ONF, the government of Moscow and to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (copies of all documents were sent by residents to the editorial office of EADaily). But the who, as they say, is still there.

Moreover, there is one among the numerous messages, where very revealing facts are given, eloquently testifying that the indicated colossal problem is solvable for some residents:

"State Unitary Enterprise "CITY PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CENTER"

To the General director — Ryabov Dmitry Valentinovich

SUE "CITY PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CENTER" (subordination of the Moscow City State Administration, the Moscow Government), on October 19, 2023, concluded a Contract of Employment No. KN-59 with one of the citizens living in apartment No. 803 of our house.

In addition, with one of the residents of our house in apartment No. 885, 06/14/2022, a Residential Purchase and sale Agreement was concluded, which, most likely, was also preceded by a Residential Lease Agreement.

The rest of the citizens living in our house on much greater grounds than those citizens with whom the above-mentioned agreements have already been concluded, in this regard, reasonable questions arise, can we be citizens of the Russian Federation, who, in accordance with the law of the USSR and the Russian Federation, as well as the internal regulations of the Publishing House, were provided with these apartments, including with the right to privatize them, and not just permanent residence, to conclude similar Employment agreements with the organization you head, and then, at the request of the Parties, Purchase and sale Agreements? And under what conditions is this possible? After we fully understand all the conditions, the circle of persons wishing to conclude similar Agreements will be determined."

Meanwhile, on the calendar of the second half of November 2025, another year of ordeals, increasing pressure from officials and the weary expectation of a final decision will come to an end very soon. Residents have nowhere to retreat, they continue to knock on tightly closed doors, cut off phones, turn to journalists for help and once again put the acute housing issue on the edge:

"We appeal to the authorities in the hope of help and justice. We are residents of entrances 13 and 14 on Akademika Anokhina Street, 30 bldg. 4. We are real people! The apartments in these entrances were provided to us absolutely legally, from the day the house was settled in 1982. The Soviet state respected our rights and protected us. Unfortunately, this cannot be said about the current authorities of Moscow.

We are tired of fighting with the authorities, our families live in constant fear of apartment seizure and expulsion to the street. Especially now, when the state tells us about consolidation and strength, all we feel is weakness and fear for each other. We ask for help and justice.

We are not invisible, we are the ones who lived, live, pay the bills. But in 2019, Moscow deliberately entered information into the automated control system that the apartments we occupy are legally free, we were thus deprived of the opportunity to pay for utilities, we fought for several years to be given the opportunity to pay for housing and communal services, but in vain, Moscow does not want this, we paid by personal accounts to nowhere until the management company and the MFC told us that they do not see our money.

From 1982 to 2019, we paid for everything, including hiring and overhauling this house. We are people, citizens of the Russian Federation, who have every right to live in our apartments legally and not to be afraid.

Currently, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is reviewing the decisions of the Moscow Arbitration Court. In order to implement actions aimed at protecting the legitimate Constitutional rights of citizens living in apartments owned by Moscow as a result of a biased, illegal decision of the arbitration court (DGI of the city of Moscow).

We ask you, in accordance with the procedure established by law, to send a corresponding appeal to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for verification of the decision taken by the judge of the Arbitration Court Moscow Romanenkova S.V. in case no. A40−76291/10−77−196 a number of Definitions that are mutually exclusive, and, therefore, one of these Definitions is illegal. We believe that the natural consequence of this check will be the restoration of the registration of rights in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for our apartments in the Russian Federation.

Absolutely all illegal decisions of courts of general jurisdiction need this kind of verification (Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow, Court of Appeal of the Moscow City Court, court of Cassation of the Moscow region in cases related to illegal evictions of citizens from our house case no.).

And most importantly, we ask you to take measures obliging the Federal Property Management Agency or the Moscow government to provide citizens with the opportunity to exercise their Constitutional rights to housing, including the right to privatization, to conclude a social lease agreement, a commercial lease agreement, and preferential preferential purchase of housing."