Residents of Butovo, 5 kilometers (3 miles) outside the capital's ring road, set up a tent camp last week, and several dozen people have been keeping a vigil there day and night, resisting forcible attempts by the authorities, bulldozers and riot police to remove them.
State Duma deputy Alexander Lebedev said he rented part of house No. 17 in South Butovo for commercial purposes, and that the property was covered by his deputy's immunity.
"I keep important documents there [in the house], and demolition is out of question," Lebedev said in a statement.
Local authorities are trying to evict residents from their houses, which they plan to raze to make way for high-rise apartment blocks. But promises of compensation and new apartments have been rejected, and residents say they were notified of the plan too late, and that the new housing on offer cannot compensate for the houses and land plots currently in their possession.
"We believe Moscow's government is to blame for the situation in Butovo, and we cannot understand Mayor Yury Luzhkov's failure to take action," said lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, a member of the Public Chamber - a body set up to act as bridge between the authorities and society - responsible for control over law-enforcement and security bodies.
A Moscow district court - many of which have a reputation for being friendly to the city's authorities - ruled earlier that the Butovo residents could be turfed off their property. Residents have told media outlets they own full rights to the land and have paid all taxes on it.
City Hall, however, argues that people in Butovo only have ownership rights to their houses, not to the land, which belongs to the city.
