2011/08/01 "278,000 Ruble Lift and Mother’s 1,000 Rubles"
  • Press Release No. 54/1390
  • 01/08/2011

On August 1, the Mother's Right Foundation finished the case of Ludmila Nikolayevna Belova in the Maikop City Court, Adygeya. Ludmila Nikolayevna's son, Vladimir Korotky (b. 1976), was called up to military service on June 18, 1994, and served in M.U. 09332, Maikop. In December 1994, together with the 131st separate motorized rifle brigade (Maikop brigade) he was sent to Chechnya. On January 1, 1995, he was killed during the New Year military attack in Grozny.  As well as many other participants of the combat, Vladimir was considered missing in action for a long time. Vladimir's body, in spite of the efforts of his mother, who walked all over Chechnya in search of her son, has not been found. Together with other mothers, Mrs. Belova traveled across Chechnya for 2 years. After all suffering, she is severely ill. After a stroke she can hardly walk: she walks with crutches at home. (For more details on the story of Ludmila Nikolayevna Belova see: press release No. 43/1311, September 29, 2010; No. 45/1313, October 1, 2010.)                 

Vladimir Korotky was awarded the Order of Courage posthumously: "At the time of the attack in Grozny, on the night of December 31, 1994 to January 1, 1995, Vladimir was a member of the second assault detachment of the IFM 214 crew. At the crossing of Staropromyslovsky Road and Altayskaya Street, the army convoy got into ambush, and the IFM's track and engine got damaged. Along with the soldiers of the landing detachment the crew organized an all-round defense. The combat lasted more than an hour, and the crew fought to the last bullet. Nobody stayed alive".

The Maikop Pension Department denied Ludmila Nikolayevna Belova a 1000 rubles bonus to her monthly payment which should be paid to the parents of soldiers who were killed in action before January 16, 1995. On August 4, 2010 the Maikop City Court issued a decision supporting the officials of the Maikop Pension Department. The cassation appeal considered on October 1, 2010 did not change the situation. On July 18, 2011 we made the Maikop City Court cancel its illegal decision. One last thing was to oblige the pension department to pay the debt to the mother of the deceased serviceman. The issue was considered at today's court hearing.

The interests of the mother of the deceased were represented by the Mother's Right Foundation lawyer, Zarema Yusupova. She stated the foundation's position: "According the USSR law ‘Measures for Improving Pension and Social Insurance' (No. 313-1, August 1, 1989), the mother of the serviceman who died before January 16, 1995, has the right to benefits equal to those of war veterans. After the monetization law of 2005, she should have received monthly payments equal to those of war veterans, i.e. 1050 rubles (not 150 rubles granted by the pension department).

The representative of the Maikop Pension Department, Maxim Nikolayevich Drygailo, came to the previous hearing absolutely unprepared. Because of him our lawyer had to go to Maikop once again. He must have forgotten the proverb saying that there's no wisdom like silence. Instead of making apologies to the mother of a dead soldier, Mr. Drygailo tried to prove that a monthly payment equal to that of war veterans was due to her son, not to Ludmila Nikolayevna.

The building of the Maikop Pension Department does not have 10 or 25 storeys...

... Let's leave alone the fact that after her two-year search in Chechnya, Mrs. Belova's status can be easily considered as equal to that of veterans, and that Mr. Drygailo, working in a comfortable office and looking through the document on 278,000 renovation of their lift (record No. 091102/015649/3/1 of the Maikop Pension Department), has no right to judge Ludmila Nikolayevna. The defendant should have read Art. 7 of Law No. 313-1 which specifies: "Parents of dead servicemen have the right to benefits due to participants of World War Two".

Mrs. Belova who walks despite the pain in her legs has to apply for 1,000 rubles to those who spend 278,000 rubles on their lift.

If the department's officials walked instead of using the lift, they would still not cover hundreds kilometers like mothers of dead servicemen, but the money would be enough to pay monthly payments to Ludmila Nikolayevna in the next twenty years.

... When we come across such defendants in court, we think: "Did the servicemen of the Maikop brigade give their lives for the life in which their mothers have to go on foot while the pension department's officials use high speed lifts?"

After hearing the parties, judge Tatiana Yakovlevna Bobina satisfied the claim of the Mother's Right Foundation.