I’m pretty pleased with the trip, though my impressions from the meetings with voters are not happy ones. People don’t just come in to talk about their lives – they come in with serious problems and I’d like to give some real help to all of them. I spent one day – 29 May – in Nizhnekamsk, and my surgery lasted for almost five hours. I got a bit tired, of course, but people came to see me with such high hopes that there could be no question of feeling tired during the surgery.
The voters had all sorts of questions, but most of them were about problems with welfare payments and benefits. But there were other problems too. For example, there was a resident of Nizhnekamsk who had been wrongfully sentenced to four years in prison and was suing for moral and material damages. His claim is being handled by a court in Kazan, but it’s very difficult to take part in a court hearing when you live in another city – it costs a lot of money for someone who has already suffered injustice.
And then there was a mother whose child needs an operation. There’s an enormous queue for the operation, so there’s a risk that the most suitable time will be missed (the child needs to have the operation before the age of three), and if it’s done when the child is older it might not be effective. My assistants are now gathering pulling together the paperwork on this, because it’s an urgent case needs to be handled as fast as possible.
There was also a woman whose son was killed and who can’t accept that only one of the murderers has been convicted while the others got off scot-free. The case is now closed, but I’m writing a deputy’s request to the Justice Minister asking for a review of how thorough the investigation was.
The question of including the Nizhnekamsk culture centre in the federal special-purpose programme is under review, and I really hope the decision will go in our favour. The school refurbishment issue is also being resolved.