‘The country’s cultural heritage (that is, historic buildings) are now being haggled over. These buildings are simply used as a trump card in all sorts of economic games. Paris, for instance, has got about a hundred such buildings, whereas in Sverdlovsk Region, there are 1,200 of them. One can’t help wondering if these buildings are really this important to our culture,’ the owner of Antey Business Center Andrey Gavrilovskiy said at a recent press conference.

The whole debate started out when a two-storey Yarutin house that dates back to 1890 was pulled down in the middle of the night in late April. This building was registered on the state historic heritage list as early as 1991. Incidentally, Yarutin house was very close to the third section of Antey Business Center (currently under construction).

‘There could be many reasons why this happened, and the questions need to be directed to the owner of this building. I believe everything will be clear in a year or so. We have nothing to do with this incident, the house wasn’t located within our construction site at all, it was actually situated behind a fence,’ Gavrilovskiy explained.

The business executive claims he is not planning on negotiating with Russian Railways Public Company, the owner of the land allotment, regarding the rent or purchase of the spot.