Russian city-dwellers more often than not live in apartments in blocks constructed during the Soviet era. These are of varying quality, but as cities expand, in the suburbs, there are often “new blocks”, which are modern, attractive buildings that promise a higher quality of life. However, while many have been completed, many are awaiting investors to allow building to be finished. As a result, many ordinary Russian people, particularly those in its emerging middle class are being offered opportunities to invest in these housing projects. However, often, these investors are left waiting for years before receiving the flat that they have paid for.
Therefore, while this story refers to “real estate investors”, they are not necessarily fat-cat multi-millionaires and businessmen, but ordinary people who have staked a lot in the project.
From Ridus.ru:
Defrauded real estate investors launch kitten into the sky with a message to Putin
A group of defrauded real estate investors decided to appeal to the president from heights that normally only birds fly. The activists built a so-called “space machine”, on which a cat called Lapka [Paw] was sent into the sky. In the words of the coordinator of the movement “Odnodolshchiki”, Igor Gulyaev, a message on a badge attached to the poor animal read “Dear Vladimir Putin. Help me to finish building my house. Yours, “Odnodolshchniki” movement”, writes Interfax.
[Note: “Odnodolshchiki” roughly translates as “Real Estate Investors United”, and is similar in sound to the name of a Russian social network, “Odnoklassniki”, which means “classmates”.
“So that the kitten didn’t die, the investors made a pressure chamber, which created artificial pressure. This pressure chamber was wrapped in a normal styrofoam box. This was how Lapka the kitten became the first cosmic kitty in the world, who asked the president to finish building homes for the defrauded investors”, Gulyaev wrote in an account of the protest.
The kitten’s first “space” flight took place in the town of Kolchugino, in Vladimir Oblast. The animal climbed to a height of around 36 kilometres [22 miles]. The organisers explained that in 1 hour and 14 minutes, the cat successfully landed 200 kilometres [125 miles] away from the take-off site.
Russia still has over 80,000 defrauded investors, who will not receive their apartment for a long time. A dangerous situation has arisen, in which investors put money that they don’t have towards the completion of a building, and they risk losing their right to get an apartment in the future, says the movement’s official site.
Comments from Ridus.ru:
paulrus:
Idiots… I understand that there are thieves and crooks around, but what’s the cat guilty of?
мартин-3236: (responding to above)
It’s a real shame they used a cat. I don’t understand why they put it under so much stress.
rollak: (responding to above)
Some people are sadists. If you want to appeal to the president, write to the administration. Why send a kitten into the air? By the way, isn’t this animal cruelty?
Михал Иваныч: (responding to above)
To which president? To Botox [one of Putin’s unofficial nicknames]? Are you in your right mind?
Goomba: (also responding to rollak)
There’s a typo – they’re not sending a message to the president, they’re sending a message to God… the president lives in the Kremlin, not in the sky.
ifromussr:
This is really cruel. Particularly if you consider that after 7-8 kilometers [4-5 miles], it’s not easy to breathe, and as a rule, the temperature is below -40 degrees. They probably didn’t seal the box hermetically.
core:
Fucking torturers.
Пыхтачу:
Balls to them, don’t give them flats! Let them be dumped in space.
Наивная идеалисткавчера:
They’ve gone out of their minds. They should be arrested for animal cruelty.
Хитрый Вован:
I think that they didn’t actually send the cat off, in fact. The last scene looks like it’s staged.
