.: © Vasily Shaposhnikov

Residents of Imeret lowland, which has been chosen to as a construction site for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, clashed with bailiffs and police yesterday, July 22, 2008. Armed with sticks and bottles of incendiary mixture, 200 locals defended their houses.

Accompanied by bailiffs, the land surveyors attempted yesterday morning to enter a dwelling at Nizhni Imeret Street. Traffic police blocked the road and the bailiffs showed the occupier Svetlana Droficheva a writ of execution spelling out the ban on opposing their surveying activities.

The news that authorities set eviction into motion spread amid the neighbors in no time. Some 200 barricaded themselves inside their houses, the remaining stood on the defense in the street.

Chief of Adler authorities Evgeny Piven showed up at around 11:00 a.m. to confirm that the bailiffs really have the writ and the owners are to admit them to the house for surveying work. “Over our dead bodies,” the locals rebuffed.

Meanwhile, the police and the bailiffs set to assaulting the gates. The locals didn’t retreat and police used pepper gas against them. A woman felt sick and an ambulance was called to help her, but the locals didn’t yield.

Officers of Russia’s riot police, OMON, were summoned to break down the resistance of people, whose houses are within the construction site of Sochi Olympics. Luckily the conflict didn’t escalate into a war. The tension was eased by acting police chief Yuri Starshikov. He approved of the “my house is my castle” stance of residents and said they have ten days to appeal the writ.

.: Russia's Vice Premier Alexander Zhukov attends a sitting of the government dedicated to Sochi 2014 Olympics. ©: Sergey Mikheev

Source: Kommersant