‘Pulling down some old buildings (like the one at 22 Khokhryakov St. ) is one of the most common ways of destroying historic artefacts in Yekaterinburg,’ the inspector of the All-Russian Society for Protection of Cultural Heritage in Sverdlovsk Region Anna Dementieva said to UrBC representative about the recent demolition of the building by Noviy Grad, the local developer.

‘This house was on the regional scheduled monuments list, even though it actually hadn’t existed for a few years already,’ Ms Dementieva said.

‘Yet it was illegal to put up any buildings in the vicinity of the monument, since the whole area was protected by law as a culturally important one,’ she observed.

However, Noviy Grad has already built a part of the residential building at 22 Khokhryakov St. using the area of the former monument.