REAL ESTATE OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES TO BE SOLD AT AUCTIONS. THE FIRST ARE SCHEDULED FOR APRIL
A closed auction is scheduled for 10 April for a building of 198.3 square meters at 26 Vasya Alekseev St. The starting price is 17,670,000 rubles. The building belonged to the Ladoga local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. It is being sold within the context of an arbitration case for disposition of property of the organization that was initiated by the Russian Ministry of Justice for St. Petersburg.
At the same time, the arbitration administrator scheduled auctions for property of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of St. Petersburg. They were supposed to have been held also on 10 April, but immediately after the publication of the announcement, the auctions were cancelled "for purposes of clarifying the starting prices of the lots." There were five in all: a land parcel of 957 sq. meters at 10 Luzhskaia St., block 1, valued at 4.3 million rubles; a building of 102.8 sq. meters at 39 Sovetskaia St. in Kronshtadt, valued at 1.7 million rubles; a building of 137.4 sq. meters at 30 Prospect of Bolsheviks, block 2, valued at 12.4 million; and a building of 114.3 sq. meters at 10 Luzhskaia St., block 1, valued at 2.2 million rubles.
By a decision of the Russian Supreme Court in April 2017, the activity of the religious organization Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and all 395 regional divisions was ruled to be extremist and forbidden on the territory of Russia. In March of last year, an arbitration court designated the procedure for distributing the property among persons who have a right to it. After this the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit against the assets of the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses of St. Petersburg and the Ladoga local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. A third case concerns buildings of the Baltic local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses. It deals with a building and land at 16 Vokzal St. in Pargolovo, premises at 156 Tenth Line on Vasiliev Island, and premises at 7 Kozygin St., block 1. But the auctions for them are still not ready.
We note that among the property of the chief organization of Jehovah's Witnesses there are several other assets in St. Petersburg. For example, land and a building on Srednaia St. in Solnechnoe and a property complex at Kolomiazh Prospect. They were transferred to the operational management of the Almazov North-West Federal Medical Research Center. The decision on the lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice also included a share in a communal apartment of Mytnin St. and an apartment at 24/2 Prosveshcheny Pr. on 32.2 square meters. They were transferred to the ownership of the RF, and no management decisions have yet been made.
A land parcel at 71 Cherniakhov St. of an area of 3,613 sq. meters was assigned to the Jehovists in 1996 with the right of permanent usage. According to an excerpt from the Rosreestr, its status also has still not been changed.
An apartment at 70 Lunacharsky Pr., block 1, of an area of 30.8 sq. meters was transferred early last year to the operational administration of the Investigative Committee and an apartment at 23 Kolontai St., block 3, of an area of 41.9 sq. meters was transferred to the administration of Rosreestr for Leningrad oblast. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 March 2019)
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