Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday in a rally against a bill to tear down Soviet-era low-rise apartment buildings.

People, mostly young and middle-aged couples, gathered on a central street to protest against arguably Russia’s largest redevelopment project to pull down entire neighbourhoods of Soviet-era prefabricated buildings. City Hall has insisted the buildings are dilapidated and outdated, while many residents and activists see the plans as a ruse to make way for high-rises in some of Moscow’s leafiest areas.

The State Duma rushed to pass the first reading of a bill on the demolition in Moscow last month, which will force the residents in what City Hall says are dilapidated blocks to vacate their apartments in exchange for other housing. Faced with growing criticism, the parliamentary speaker, however, suggested postponing the second reading pending a public debate.



Carrying placards – “No to the demolition of the constitution!” – and the flags of their neighbourhoods, Muscovites chanted “Resign!” in reference to Moscow’s mayor and City Hall. Police estimated that turnout at Sunday’s rally was as low as 5,000 people, while volunteers of the White Counter group, which attends opposition rallies to provide independent crowd tallies, said just over 20,000 people showed up.

Alexei Matveyev, a 36-year-old bank clerk from a north Moscow neighbourhood, carried a placard, reading “No to violation of the constitution and property law”. He said the bill under discussion is rushed and disregards residents’ interests.

“People who live in these blocks bought the apartments in order to live in quiet, leafy low-rises,” Matveyev said. “We are happy in our house. We don’t want to live in tower blocks.”

Fyodor Markushevich, a 40-year-old father of four, lives in a neighbourhood in the west of the city that has recently been taken off the list for redevelopment, but he fears that once the bill passes the plans will be redrafted again.

“Everyone is sick of it,” he said. “We understand that we live in a city where everything is done for profit and it’s hard to change that.”

The five-storey prefabricated buildings to be torn down, known as khrushchevki, after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, were built in the 1950s and 60s to tackle an acute housing crisis. The demolition plans, however, ignore some of the city’s most dilapidated housing in less attractive neighbourhoods while including good-quality buildings in what have recently become expensive neighbourhoods.

Under the plan proposed by the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, about 5,000 low-rises will be torn down in the next few years to make way for new developments. The mayor insisted that residents would be offered housing of the same size in the same neighbourhoods, but residents fear they will be expelled from their quiet neighbourhoods and sent to live in high-rises. The first blocks are due to be demolished before the end of the year, and Sobyanin said some residents would be relocated as early as this autumn.

While authorities insist that the buildings will not be demolished if residents vote against it, people are sceptical, pointing out that voting on Moscow’s government website has been rigged in the past.