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Moscow government sued for almost $30 mln for dismantling shops

The Arbitration Tribunal has accepted the lawsuit for hearing and a preliminary court session has been scheduled for July 1

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/. The first lawsuit worth almost 2 billion rubles ($30 million) has been filed against the Moscow government for the so-called night of long excavator scoops when bulldozers demolished retail trade pavilions in the Russian capital near several metro stations.

Sozidaniye LLC has turned to the Moscow City Arbitration Tribunal with a lawsuit against the Moscow government, the prefecture of Moscow’s southern administrative district and the district’s Automotive Road Company on recovering the losses of over 1.806 billion rubles ($27 million).

The lawsuit challenges the demolition of the plaintiff’s retail outlet located near Yuzhnaya metro station, Sozidaniye LLC lawyer Ruben Markaryan told TASS.

According to the lawyer, the area of the demolished building that also housed a Moscow bank office equaled 1,500 square meters.

"Courts of law numerously checked the legitimacy of the facility’s construction, the safety of its operation and the absence of legitimate grounds for recognizing it as an unauthorized structure and its demolition. However, contrary to the owner’s will and the court orders that came into effect, the facility was pulled down on February 9, 2016 ["on the night of the long excavator scoops]," the lawyer said.

The Arbitration Tribunal has accepted the lawsuit for hearing and a preliminary court session has been scheduled for July 1, the lawyer said.