Nina Karpukhina discovered that ownership meant absolutely nothing

During the 1990s, millions of ordinary Russians became home-owners for the first time.

Reformers argued that private property would lead to personal freedom.

Perhaps it did... for a while.

But Property to Die For reveals the untold horror stories of today's Moscow property market; the effects of multi-million dollar development scams, corrupt officials and an increasingly fragile rule of law.

Nina Karpukhina tells the This World team: "We were all at work when we were told that our house was being demolished... We came back and instead of our house, there was flat ground."

Nina was one of several home-owners living in a traditional Moscow suburb. The local authority knocked down their houses to build high-rise blocks of flats, making millions for developers and bureaucrats.

Looming threat

Private ownership in Russia is an unfamiliar concept and people do not fully understand it.

State property has been privatised in a series of contradictory laws, leaving new owners dangerously exposed.

Emilia and her mother Rozalia have run their own popular restaurant since 1988 and managed to buy the property in 2002.

Now they live in fear of losing everything.

The two women are fighting a threatened takeover by a neighbouring property developer and their official paperwork is proving useless.

"The fact that we bought this restaurant, paid money for it and have all the necessary papers, doesn't work anymore," says Emilia.

"Now I understand it was just an illusion."

Property To Die For was broadcast on Tuesday, 19 July, 2005 at 2100 BST on BBC Two.