dispatches from TJICistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/world/…

MOSCOW — In the 1950s, the Soviet government set aside a bit of land on the Moscow River for Maria I. Gurlynina’s family and several dozen others to grow food. It was a barren plot, “nothing but sand and swamp,” Ms. Gurlynina said. But it was theirs.

Maria I. Gurlynina in the garden of her home in the settlement. “They said we could stay here forever,” she said.

Her family carted in soil and planted apple trees and berry bushes. Her grandfather, a decorated World War II submariner, died hauling in a heavy load. But several birch trees that he planted decades ago still stand in front of the family’s gingerbread-style cottage, built in recent years.

Then, early one morning last year, the bulldozers arrived.

The municipal government had declared that the Soviet-era permits giving Ms. Gurlynina and her neighbors use of the land were invalid, and it had ruled that the 200 or so homes in Ms. Gurlynina’s community… had to be removed….

Officially, the government plans to turn the area into a nature preserve, though for many residents, the golf course and newly built gated neighborhood called Fantasy Island up the road suggest other intentions…

Private land stolen by the government for use by rich, politically connected oligarchs?

Those poor Russian bastards have it just as bad as we do here in the US!

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/20…

The private homes that New London, Conn., took away from Suzette Kelo and her neighbors have been torn down. Their former site is a wasteland of fields of weeds, a monument to the power of eminent domain.

But now Pfizer, the drug company whose neighboring research facility had been the original cause of the homes’ seizure, has just announced that it is closing up shop in New London.

To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to the land Pfizer was buying for next-to-nothing. Suzette Kelo fought the taking to the Supreme Court, and lost. Five justices found this redevelopment met the constitutional hurdle of “public use.”

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