VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited a flat in the area and talked to its new occupants. The family of seven had moved to the new four-room flat with an area of over 100 square metres from a flooded house with an area of 44 square metres. The prime minister looked around the flat and asked the family whether they felt comfortable in it, whether everything suited them and if it was warm enough.
Putin gave them a certificate for an air conditioner that will be delivered and installed later. "It's hot in the summer, so here is an air conditioner as a present for you," he said. The daughter of the flat's owners recited a verse that she learned in kindergarten for Defender of the Fatherland Day. She said that she lost all her toys in the flood, and Putin gave her a teddy bear.
Then Putin went to a new cottage where a family of four lives. The head of the family, now a pensioner, used to work in the merchant marine. He told Putin that the new cottage was built very quickly, literally in two months. "And the old house was washed out, wasn't it?" Putin asked. The owner's wife, Natalia, said that their previous house was very old. "We tried to repair it as much as we could but it failed to hold up against the flood of water," she explained. "But is this one better?" Putin asked. "This is a fairy tale. True, we were a little worried whether they would build it in time," she said.
The prime minister asked the couple about the quality of the construction, and they assured him that they had no complaints about the builders.
The cottage's owner said that his son now serves in the Northern Fleet in Murmansk. When he learned about the flooding his commander allowed him to leave for home. "Well, your son is a sailor, he is used to swimming," Putin joked, and asked: "But were you scared?" Natalia said that she was frightened at some point because she had to take care not only of herself but also of her old mother, who could only escape the water by standing on the table. The water was flowing in and by the evening Natalia was standing with water up to her waist in complete darkness. "I was standing as if in a submarine, holding my mother with one hand and a telephone with the other so as to have some form of communication," she recalled. They introduced their entire family to Putin and invited him to have tea with them.
While drinking his tea, Putin specified how much the authorities paid the family to reimburse them for the lost property. It turned out that each member of the family received 150,000 roubles and another 10,000 roubles for current expenses. "Was this enough to get settled in the new cottage?" Putin asked. The head of the family said that this money was enough even though they had to buy new furniture. "We have already formalised ownership of the house and plot," he added. "Did you have a choice between a flat and a house?" Putin asked. "Yes, we were given this choice, but I grew up having land," Natalia replied.
Her husband again remarked that they did not expect to receive new housing so quickly. "I didn't expect this myself. I demanded that they built it but did not expect them to manage with this task," said the prime minister laughing. He asked what kind of plot the family had received. They said five hundred square metres and Putin asked whether they were going to build anything else there. "We will build a bathhouse and a garage there," the host said. "The bath is a good idea. Alexander will come visit you," he said pointing to Krasnodar Territory Governor Tkachyov, who was accompanying him.
Before leaving, Putin gave a toy car to the family's youngest son, and a huge teddy bear to their daughter. "The adults will get an air conditioner so that they feel very comfortable in summer," he said giving them the certificate.
As a result of the flooding of October 2010 in the Tuapse District, 17 people died and six went missing. More than 7,500 people were affected by the flooding. The damage amounted to about 2.5 billion roubles. At present, the victims have received new comfortable housing in the villages of Dzhubga and Novomikhailovsky. All in all, 44 cottages have been built in the village of Dzhubga, as well as three buildings with 118 flats, and 16 cottages and one apartment complex in Novomikhailovsky. By now, 182 families (506 people) have been resettled in the new housing.
