Parents of students at Ryazan Motor Transport College are opposing a proposal to move the institution from its historic building in the city center to another site. People interviewed by Govorit NeMoskva said the move could affect around 1,400 students and make getting to classes more difficult.
In early October, Ryazan region Governor Pavel Malkov announced plans to turn the college's current building into a creative space. The people interviewed named a building on Musorgskogo Street as the proposed new location for classes. No signed relocation order was included in the available materials, and the college has not yet moved.
One parent estimated that traveling from the Prioksky neighborhood to the proposed site would take about an hour and a half each way. That estimate concerns a particular journey, not the average commute for all students. According to those interviewed, parents have sent appeals to President Vladimir Putin, children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova and Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin.
The interviewees also alleged that teachers had been warned over a possible video appeal by parents, and expressed concern that some staff might resign. The college building, whose history is linked to benefactor Sergei Zhivago, was built in 1875.