The court refused to return a plot of land to a Sochi Cossack.

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Sochi Cossack Vladimir Galka was unable to successfully pursue a court case to regain ownership of a plot of land confiscated by the authorities, which he has farmed for 30 years.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in June 2022, Sochi Cossack Vladimir Galka complained that a plot of land given to a Cossack community in the Adler village was mistakenly transferred to municipal ownership, and that officials are now offering to buy it back at auction. According to village residents, some 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 the Adler and Sochi prosecutors and the actions of the officials who confiscated his land. Before the New Year, the fence and gate on the property were torn down.

On May 22, the Adler District Court of Sochi rejected the claim of local resident and hereditary Cossack Vladimir Galka, who was attempting to reclaim a 1,078-square-meter plot of land in the Blinovo neighborhood confiscated by authorities. The plaintiff was unable to attend the hearing due to a hypertensive crisis, which developed as a result of a previous stroke.

The hearing of the Adler District Court in Sochi, scheduled for May 22, ended quickly; the proceedings took no more than five minutes, the plaintiff's wife, Olga Koryagina, who was present in the courtroom, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The judge read the text of the claim quickly, mumbling only our petition and demands.

"My husband couldn't come; his blood pressure spiked and he had a severe crisis. He's still struggling to recover from the stroke he suffered amid all the stress of the court proceedings and the destruction of our fence. The judge read the text of the lawsuit quickly, mumbling only the petition and demands. Then he asked the opinion of a city administration representative, acting under a power of attorney from Acting Sochi Mayor Oleg Proshunin. She stated curtly, "We request that the lawsuit be dismissed." The judge immediately left and returned with a prepared operative part—a complete dismissal. They promised to issue a reasoned decision only in June," Koryagina said.

As a reminder, the conflict over the land plot has been ongoing for years. According to the case materials, back in 1991–1993, the executive committee of the Sochi City Council and the city administration allocated 11.4 hectares of land in the Blinovo microdistrict for individual residential development for the Adler Cossack Circle. Following protracted legal proceedings between 2009 and 2012, the Adler Cossack Society succeeded in expanding the list of Cossacks in need of housing to 35 individuals.

This approved list also included Vladimir Galka, a Cossack since 1994. In 2009, Galka was officially assigned a plot of 1,078 square meters. He had openly used this land for over 30 years, cultivating it and regularly paying land taxes, as evidenced by receipts and certificates from the Federal Tax Service attached to the lawsuit.

Problems began in March 2011, when Galka contacted the Sochi Property Relations Department to register the land as his own (most of his fellow Cossacks had already privatized their plots by that time). According to the plaintiff, the then head of the department and his subordinates took advantage of the Cossack's legal illiteracy. Officials assured him that the procedure would proceed more quickly if he wrote a statement "transferring the plot to municipal ownership."

Under the dictation of his employees, Galka signed a document, which the authorities subsequently interpreted as a waiver of his rights. Just a month later, on April 15, 2011, the deputy director of the department unilaterally signed Order No. 674 "r," adding the plot to the municipal property register. Authorities then tore down the fence around the plot. In an official response from the Sochi administration, signed by Acting Deputy Mayor P.L. Severov, the demolition of the fence was described as a legal compliance with regulations. Officials cite the fact that, according to an extract from the Unified State Register of Real Estate, municipal ownership of this plot was registered as early as June 20, 2011. Since the land belongs to the city, and "the department has no information on leases, purchase and sale agreements, or reallocation agreements regarding the plot," the city considers any third-party presence there and the erection of fences illegal. The mayor's office's response is based on a formal fact: the land is registered to the municipality, meaning that citizen Galka's rights have not been violated, as they were not fully formalized legally.

Lawyer sees signs of a violation of the law in the court's decision

What happened bears the hallmarks of a gross violation of land legislation and the principle of equal rights for citizens, according to Timur Akhmedov, a lawyer independent of this case. "The situation appears extremely ambiguous from a legal perspective. Firstly, citizen Galka was not the sole owner in 2011 – the land was allocated to the Cossack community as a legal entity. Accordingly, Galka himself had no legal right to dispose of this land or transfer it to the municipality, and officials had no right to accept such an application from an unauthorized person. Secondly, a selective approach is evident. If the entire 11.4-hectare land plot was allocated to the Cossacks under equal conditions, and the remaining 34 individuals were able to register their plots, then confiscating Galka's land specifically appears discriminatory. The fact that the Adler court issued its decision in five minutes, without even delving into the thirty-year history of good ownership and tax payments, speaks to the judicial system's perfunctory approach. "Of course, this decision must be appealed to the Krasnodar Regional Court immediately after receiving the full reasoned part," he commented to a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

How can I continue to live with the feeling that I am not considered a human being, that my rights are not respected in my country - I don't know.

Vladimir Galka's defense team has announced its intention to continue the fight and is preparing complaints to higher courts, as well as an appeal to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to resolve the legal conflict that has arisen. Vladimir Galka himself told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he is "completely thrown off track in life, because 30 years of his life have been connected to this land," where he and his family spent most of his time. "How can I continue to live with the feeling that I'm not considered a human being, that my rights are not respected in my country—I don't know," he said.