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Eco-activists protecting Khimki Forest taken to the court
Published: 21 September, 2010, 18:34
Edited: 22 September, 2010, 19:54
TAGS: Ecology, Scandal, Protest, Prime Time Russia
The fate of the Khimki Forest is to remain undecided for longer than initially anticipated. Russia's Public Chamber wants to fully investigate alternative routes for the controversial motorway planned through the forest.
None have so far been put forward. An earlier public hearing on whether to build road ended in a deadlock.
President Dmitry Medvedev suspended work on the route following a public outcry over the project. He now says he will make a decision on the future of the Khimki Forest based on the findings of the Public Chamber.
On Tuesday news emerged that legal action has been brought against 11 individuals, including Evgenia Chirikova, the leader of the Movement for the Protection of Khimki Forest. The company is seeking damages to the sum of almost 8 million rubles (over US$250 000) for impeding machinery access to the construction site.
The building of the highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg was supposed to begin in October 2010, which involved cutting down a large swath of forest. A worldwide response and numerous actions of protest, including pickets of Russian embassies, urged the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to halt the construction on August 26.
However by that point, as much as 60 hectares of the forest had already been logged, so the majority of what people were trying to protect has been destroyed.
Russian president decided to stop the building process until public hearings on the matter will be conducted.
Later, in the middle of September, Russia's Public Chamber gathered for a session on the future of Khimki Forest, but the meeting reached no resolution.
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