Moscow plan to demolish at least 5,000 apartment blocks and rehouse around 1 million people | Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

Until recently, Elmira Shagiakhmetova, a businesswoman in Moscow, had never been to a protest. But on May 14, she and tens of thousands of middle-class Russians took to the streets to defend something very precious to them—their homes. Moscow authorities plan to demolish at least 5,000 apartment blocks and rehouse around 1 million people in multistory…

Thousands of Moscow residents protested this month against plans to move more than a million people if their apartments, built during the 1950’s era of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, are torn down. Russian authorities say some 8,000 short-story buildings are in disrepair, and promise to find or build the residents better apartments. While some living in…