Northern Fleet servicemen held protest meeting in Murmansk

23.05.2011 Military servicemen arranged protest meeting in Murmansk on May 21 under the motto "Deceived Regiments Parade".

Over 200 actual and retired officers and their families took part in the meeting. Protesters can not receive apartments which must be given to them by defense ministry in accordance with active legislation. The action took place under colors of All-Russian Guild of Servicemen, Rightful Russia Party, and Russian Communist Party.

This has been not the only one activity of this kind in the current year. In March, the first protest action was conducted in Murmansk in order to draw attention to problems of officers dismissed from distant closed-type garrisons, dropped from rolls, deprived of salary, and left without quarters. Hundreds of officer wives addressed to president Medvedev asking to find out why their husbands had been unlawfully dismissed and ordered to leave service housing.

One month ago a commission headed by deputy defense ministers Nikolai Pankov, Tatiana Shevtsova, and Navy Commander-in-Chief ADM Vladimir Vysotsky arrived in Northern Fleet to relieve social stress. Having met with military servicemen and their families in Severomorsk, the high-ranking visitors promised to unscramble the problem and set things right. However, no tangible improvements have happened so far. Such situation forced servicemen to protest in downtown Murmansk again.

Despite certain measures taken by Western Military District command with the view to prevent dismissals without appropriate accommodation, such cases happen. One of the recent orders of this kind was endorsed in Northern Fleet on May 19.

Appearing at the meeting, former and acting officers outlined housing problems and growing mistrust to governing authorities incapable to fulfill legal demands of the nation on time. Political slogans also were heard during the protest action – calls for ousters of defense minister, government and its head. As a result, protesters drew a resolution addressed to the Supreme Commander of Russian Armed Forces (president Medvedev), Government of the Russian Federation, Murmansk Regional Parliament, and other public authorities.