The public prosecution authorities of Sverdlovsk Region filed a criminal suit related to abuse of power against a number of civil servants from Yekaterinburg municipal council. This was the result of an investigation conducted at numerous requests and applications made by both legal entities and individuals who were unhappy with the way the accused distributed land allotments for housing construction. It has been proved that the offenders had been making their decisions regarding the allocation of land without holding proper auctions, which was against the law and did great damage to both the society and the state, depriving Yekaterinburg of profits that could have been made in the course of an auction.

The investigative committee has been taking steps in order to get a better picture of the circumstances and find out who is to blame. For one, a number of important papers were withdrawn in the course of searching the city council’s premises on July 3, 2007.

The prosecutor’s press officer claims there was no intention of undermining the city council’s performance behind the search; nor did it affect the implementation of the national housing project known as Affordable Housing to Russian Citizens.