“Restoring” Architecture Monument by Excavating Machine
The Movement for Freedom (the MFF) supporters and the representatives of the Ministry of Culture Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection and Restoration Agency managed to stop the illegal activity.
On November 30, construction workers of KUP Minskaya Spadchyna (Minsk Heritage, utilities unitary enterprise) began demolishing the architecture monument – namely, a 19th century building at Revalutsynaya street 24 – with the help of the excavating machine and managed to ruin a whole wing of this building.
At present, the Ministry of Culture suspended these works and prepared materials on the violation of the Law to initiate the prosecutor’s inspection while the Monuments Protection Society applied to the Minsk Central District Prosecutor's Office asking to hold the following persons criminally liable – Mikhail Zhykh, Minskaya Spadchyna chief engineer, based on Article 344, part 2 of the Criminal Code, and Paval Shykuniets, Minskaya Spadchyna CEO, based on Article 428.
In fact, Minskaya Spadchyna tried to demolish this building located at Revalutsynaya street as early as on November 11 paying no attention to the decision of the Belarusian Republican Scientific and Methodical Council which prescribed manual disassembly of the building structures and without the Ministry of Culture permission. The efforts of the citizens and of the specialists of the Ministry of Culture Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection and Restoration Agency helped cease the illegal activity of these criminals calling themselves “restoration workers”. After this incident, Minskaya Spadchyna chief engineer Mikhail Zhykh promised to perform operations in this building in strict compliance with the recommended techniques.
“All is left is to rely on the prosecutor’s officers’ honesty because the process of demolition or unnecessary alteration of monuments could be stopped by creating a precedent of criminal responsibility for the said breach of law”, the MFF activist Anton Astapovich thinks.
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