Why Putin Is Tearing Down My Childhood Home
Demolition mission.
It's a sentimental moment when your childhood home is about to be demolished. For me, it comes as a logical conclusion to an ugly transformation of the city and country of my birth.
Few city governments would undertake a program as ambitious as tearing down 4,500 apartment blocks and resettling about 1 million people. Moscow, however, is about to do just that, and the way it's being handled illustrates two processes largely obscured by President Vladimir Putin's geopolitical razzle-dazzle. One is Russia's transformation into a country where the state is the only ambitious economic player. The other process is the erosion of basic individual rights -- not flashy ones like free speech and assembly but mundane ones, such as property and a voice in neighborhood affairs.