In Irkutsk, measures were discussed against apartment owners and tenants who use housing to sell drugs and run drug dens. The administration, drug control, and local police conduct inspections, issue warnings, and if there is no response are ready to seek eviction through court or termination of the social rental contract. Special attention was drawn to the first case in the region where a social rental contract is planned to be terminated in court because of repeated use of an apartment for drug sales.

At a meeting of the anti-drug commission under the administration of the city of Irkutsk, the issue of taking measures against owners (tenants) of residential premises who use these premises for drug trafficking and as drug dens was discussed.
Employees of the State Drug Control Service identify addresses of drug dens, open criminal cases, and send information to district administrations, which send a warning to the apartment owners. In addition,
employees of the city district management committees, together with municipal volunteer patrol members and district police officers, conduct monthly inspections of residential premises where drugs are being sold or drug dens have been set up.
“Often this measure alone is effective, and the drug point ceases its activity,” said Maxim Zinoviev, Deputy Chairman of the anti-drug commission under the administration of the city of Irkutsk and Deputy Head of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia for the Irkutsk Region.
If there is no response, the city administration files a lawsuit for eviction of the residents and deprivation of their property rights. If this is municipal housing, the municipality has the right to terminate the social tenancy agreement through the court; if the apartment has been privatized, it may be sold at auction.
In 2011, warnings about liability for using residential premises for purposes other than intended were sent to residents at four addresses in the Pravoberezhny District. According to the State Drug Control Service, drugs were being sold in apartments on Nekrasova, Volodarskogo, Polenova, and Nesterova streets. The State Drug Control Service sent the Pravoberezhny District committee a list of addresses with a proposal to take measures against the owners or tenants of the apartments.
As Alexander Khudobin, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Management of the Pravoberezhny District, said, warnings were sent by the administration to these addresses (by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt) about liability for using residential premises for purposes other than intended.
“If drug trafficking at these addresses resumes, and we again receive a signal from the State Drug Control Service, we will act through the court,” Alexander Khudobin noted. “At the moment, no information about repeated cases of using the premises for purposes other than intended has been received by the committee. It seems that the measure proved effective, especially for those who are co-owners of apartments, rent out apartments, or provide housing to relatives.”
As reported by the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia for the Irkutsk Region, this year for the first time in the Irkutsk Region the social tenancy agreement will be terminated through the court with a resident of the Novo-Lenino district, A.A. Salmina, who used the apartment for drug trafficking.
In October 2009, for organizing and maintaining a drug den, taking mitigating circumstances into account, the young woman received a suspended sentence. In December 2009, the landlord of the apartment (which is the Committee for the Management of the Leninsky District of the administration of the city of Irkutsk) sent Ms. Salmina a warning to cease illegal actions and not to use the residential premises for purposes other than intended, as well as to comply with the rights and interests of neighbors. However, the woman ignored the landlord’s demands and continued to invite drug addicts to her apartment. In September 2010, the Leninsky District Court of Irkutsk sentenced the young woman to an actual prison term for committing a similar crime.
“In Russia, this is the only case,” Maxim Zinoviev emphasized. “The federal center has become interested in our experience, and in the near future this mechanism will be implemented throughout the entire territory of Russia.”