Krasnodar Krai governor Aleksandr Tkachev said during a press conference in Sochi that people, whose houses are located on the land where Olympic projects are planned, will be compensated, “their houses will be bought using real market prices”. The real market prices jumped incredibly in this region (as well as in Big Sochi and all neighbouring regions).

“There are very few of such buildings – about 3%, and theoretically, they will have to be demolished… Our projects and solutions are ready. But I want to stress, that nothing will be done without consent of our citizens. No mass demolition will be done” – said governor Tkachev.

He also said that up to 150 families may be affected. And that those families that built their houses illegally(*) are being helped to legalize their property, so if necessary they can get compensation.

(*) some people in Russia built houses first, with hopes to legalize them later, though the courts or bribes. Unfortunately this was not uncommon in Russia, especially in the 90’s. But with our new minister of ecology and for some other reasons this has become a risky business.

As I wrote before, people who live in the Imeritinskaya Valley, where Olympic stadiums are planned, are concerned that they will loose their houses and not be compensated according to the value. The concerns come after several recent similar conflicts between Moscow gov’t and Moscow residents.

Interesting thing happened with these people during IOC visit. “Greens”, who are protesting against Olympics in Sochi, included them to their group for the meeting with IOC commitee last week, but later had taken them of that list. “We think that “greens” wanted to use us in their protests against the Olympics in Sochi. But they took us from their list after they found out that we are not against the Olympics, and that we just want to protect our rights…” – said one of the residents.