A press conference on the latest developments around the European University at St. Petersburg was held on January 26.
The press conference was attended by the EUSP Rector and member of the Presidential Council for Science and Education Oleg Kharkhordin, EUSP co-founder and professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Vakhtin, EUSP Vice-Rector for General Affairs Leonid Ravnushkin.
St. Petersburg authorities have decided not to evict the European University in the middle of the teaching and learning process
ST. PETERSBURG, January 26. (Natalia Mikhalchenko, TASS news agency).
The Committee for Property Relations does not require the immediate eviction of the European University at St. Petersburg considering the ongoing learning process. Alexander German, the deputy chairman of the Committee wrote about it in his letter sent to TASS. The letter clarifies the position of the Committee regarding the decision to terminate the lease agreement for the building occupied by the EUSP on Gagarinskaia Street.
On January 23 the Committee for Property Relations said they had decided to terminate the building lease agreement due to the University's nonobservance of its protection obligations. As previously announced by the EUSP Rector Oleg Kharkhordin, the University is forced to be ousted on the eve of the signing of an investment agreement on the restoration and adjustment of the building for educational purposes. The project cost is estimated at 2.2- 2.4 billion Russian rubles.
“We hereby inform you that the St. Petersburg Committee for Property Relations does not require the immediate eviction of the University taking into account the ongoing learning process”, - says the letter mentioned above.
Meanwhile, at a press conference hosted by TASS on January 26 the EUSP Rector demonstrated a document and said it was a letter dated December 27, 2016 in which “the Committee had required to vacate the premises within a 5-day period”.
Actions taken by the sides
With no theoretical possibility to leave the building by January 1, 2017, the University appealed to the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region with two lawsuits - to adopt interim measures and to examine the merits of the case. Interim measures have been taken at a meeting on January 19, while the trial will begin on March 15.
Kharkhordin said the letter he cited at the TASS press conference was the primary document clarifying the position of the Committee for him. “We have asked for an official explanation and so far we have not heard back, but 30 days have not passed yet, we are waiting”, - the Rector said.
The demand to vacate the building was preceded by an inspection conducted by the Committee for Property Relations on July 15 last year. The investigation “revealed that there have been unauthorized alterations in the building, old windows were replaced by new, metal-plastic windows on the facade of the first floor, a single-storey construction adjacent to the building was found in the courtyard, it also found third-party users of the building and their property without the consent of the Committee”, - stated the letter sent to TASS from the Committee.
According to the letter, on July 25, 2016 the Committee sent an improvement notice to the University stating the need to eliminate violations by October 25, 2016. It also issued a claim for recovery of penalty due to the breach of contract conditions, termination of the lease and eviction.
This led to the need to clarify the situation in court. On October 5, 2016 the Dzerzhinsky district court of St. Petersburg found the University guilty of an administrative violation and inflicted a penalty upon it with a fine of 200 thousand rubles.
The EUSP Rector explained that during the court meeting the university “managed to prove the groundlessness of claims about the construction of an illegal extension in the yard (it was built in 1979 by the Institute of Labour Protection, the predecessor of the EUSP which was located in the building during the Soviet era, they stored hazardous chemicals in the extension discussed above)”. There were a number of other claims about the restoration of individual elements of the building, which were successfully refuted thanks to documents obtained from the archive of the Committee for State Control and Protection of Historical and Cultural Landmarks (KGIOP).
“The court ruled that a minimal fine of 200 thousand rubles should be collected for a few plastic windows, air conditioning and other alterations, and we thought it would all be over. The letter requesting our eviction on the eve of the New Year was a surprise to us”, - said Kharkhordin.
Whose initiative?
The Committee says the inspection and its consequences were initiated upon the online request of an unnamed citizen received on July 4, 2016. “On July 4, 2016 e-reception of the Committee had an incoming petition from a citizen requesting to carry out a building inspection in connection with ongoing repair work and complaints about some cracks on the facade of the building”, - stated the Committee.
“Indeed, there are some cracks, but they were caused by the works carried out on a neighboring historical building to adjust the latter to modern needs. We installed telltales to monitor the cracks and reported to KGIOP. Afterwards we informed them when the telltales were broken”, - said the EUSP Vice-Rector for General Affairs Leonid Ravnushkin.
Earlier it was reported that in the summer of 2016 the University underwent 11 inspections, two of which resulted in serious consequences with court sessions and the threat of losing the license. The case with Rosobrnadzor is currently under trial and the next session is scheduled for February 8. The other case is against the Committee for Property Relations.
Kharkhordin said he did not understand the reasons behind the simultaneous initiation of a large number of inspections. “In 2008 the University has faced a similar problem when we received an improvement notice with a list of 52 violations from the fire department. We very quickly realized what was wrong. We had received a grant from the European Union which was intended to help political parties learn the election observation and monitoring technologies. The grant was returned, our problems were over”, - said the Rector.
Now, he said, there are “no signs pointing at what we should correct”.
Investment project under threat
Kharkhordin believes dispossessing the EUSP would be a big loss for the city. “We have been negotiating with the city authorities since 2013 over a project to adjust the building for modern educational purposes. The mansion of Kushelyov-Bezborodko, known in St. Petersburg as the Small Marble Palace, has been owned by Ekaterina Dolgorukova, the morganatic wife of Alexander II, followed by her daughter the Serene Princess Yurievskaya”, - he said.
“Investments are estimated at 1.7-2.4 billion rubles, half of which we have already managed to raise and the funds are already deposited for the University. The other half was pledged by donors. The Rector had the right to sign the investment agreement with the city only after that. It was planned to be signed in the nearest future”, - he said. “At the moment there are no other similar investment projects in St. Petersburg”, - said Kharkhordin. Vice-Rector Ravnushkin added that “the University has already spent $2mln to develop the project documentation and other required documents”.