A Sochi Cossack was outraged by the authorities' demolition of a fence on his property.

Before the New Year, on a plot of land in the Adler district of Sochi, farmed by Cossack Vladimir Galka for over 30 years, the iron gates and fence were torn down by order of the district administration. This was the continuation of a long-running conflict over land that the Cossack community had received in the early 1990s but had never been able to formally register.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in June 2022, Sochi Cossack Vladimir Galka complained that a plot of land allocated to the Cossack community in the Adler village had been mistakenly transferred to municipal ownership, and officials were now proposing to repurchase it at auction. According to village residents, part of the land allocated to the Cossacks was sold to strangers. Vladimir Galka complained to the Krasnodar Krai Prosecutor's Office about the red tape of Adler and Sochi prosecutors and the actions of the officials who took his land.

Most of those who received land subsequently resold their plots, but Vladimir Galka, according to him, has been cultivating the plot at his own expense all these years.

I'm not a lawyer, so I simply believed the administration officials. It later turned out they'd been using this statement as a cover for over ten years to seize the land.

In 2011, the Cossacks began registering the land as their own. However, according to Galka, instead of registering the rights, his plot ended up being registered to the municipality. According to the Cossack, officials "fraudulently obtained" a statement from him, which was used to transfer the land to municipal ownership. "I'm not a lawyer, so I simply believed the administration officials' words. It later turned out they'd been using this statement as a cover for over ten years to seize the land," he says.

On March 19, Galka filed a complaint with the Krasnodar Krai Prosecutor's Office against the actions of the Adler and Sochi prosecutors, accusing them of red tape and city officials of illegally seizing the land. In his appeal, he cited Article 45 of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure, which allows the prosecutor to appeal to the court on behalf of socially vulnerable citizens.

"I'm already old, and my health is failing. I can't deal with the administration on my own. Everything around me has been sold off, and all I get is formal replies," he noted.

According to Galka, the prosecutor's office has responded to him stating that the supervisory agency had not previously participated in his legal disputes and sees no grounds for intervention.

The demolition took place on New Year's Eve.

On December 31, according to Vladimir Galka, unknown individuals arrived at his property, knocked down the iron gates and fence, scattered fencing elements across the property, and left.

"I arrived and didn't recognize my property. The fence was knocked down, the gates were lying down, everything was scattered, like after a hurricane. "And this is on the day when people are getting ready to celebrate the New Year," he said. The Cossack's wife, Olga, said the officials' actions had caused significant stress for the family. "Instead of celebrating, we were running around from office to office, trying to understand why we'd been denied land registration for so many years, and now we've suddenly decided to dispose of it." "My husband became ill and had to seek medical attention," she said.

According to the couple, they were told on site that the plot had been "sold by the administration," but were not provided with the buyer's name or a court decision.

The authorities promised to bill them for dismantling the fence.

A representative of the Adler District Administration told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that "the fence was dismantled legally."

“The head of the Galka district administration sent a notice demanding that the fence be dismantled by December 29. The fact that he did not receive the notice is not the administration’s problem. Due to failure to comply with the order, the fence was dismantled as an illegally placed non-stationary object,” the official said.

According to him, Galka will be billed for the dismantling, and may also face administrative liability for failure to comply with the order. However, the administration representative neither confirmed nor denied the information about the sale of the plot to a third party.

The lawyer doubted the validity of the administration’s actions.

Independent lawyer Roman Pavlov, commenting on the situation, noted that even with In the presence of a property rights dispute, the administration's actions raise questions.

"If a citizen's property—a fence, gates, or outbuildings—was located on the plot, dismantling it without a court order could be classified as arbitrary action or causing property damage. Administrative action is only permissible in strictly limited cases and with proper notification, which must be proven," the lawyer explained.

According to him, long-term actual ownership and use of the plot, investment in its improvement, and the absence of a court order terminating rights create grounds for litigation rather than forcible dismantling.

"The key question in this case is why, given 30 years of land use and the absence of a court order, authorities effectively disposed of the citizen's plot and property. This could be the subject of both a civil lawsuit and a law enforcement investigation into damage to another person's property (Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)," Pavlov noted.

Galka intends to complain to law enforcement.

Vladimir Galka himself says he is not abandoning legal defenses, but perceives the incident as pressure.

"I've owned this property for over 30 years. Everything there is my labor and my money," he said.

According to the Cossack, he intends to once again file a complaint with the prosecutor's office and investigative authorities regarding property damage and illegal actions by officials.

"They're right that there's no way to deal with a crowbar," noted his wife, who believes officials likely deliberately staged the incident on December 31st so that during the long holidays, it would be impossible to complain to anyone or document the abuse.