illegal logging in the Khimki forest

A foreign forest expert who witnessed yesterdays incident describes her first impressions of the Khimki situation. Yesterday, a group of around 30 people went to a site near Shermetyevo airport where currently illegal logging takes place. The aim of the activists was to ask the workers on the site to show them a cutting permission and documents which can prove that the logging activities aren't illegal.

Today I witnessed the treatment of peaceful activists trying to protect forests in Russian: they do not only get beaten up by thugs, but also officially by police forces.

I went with a group of activists to a site where currently illegal logging activities are taking place. The aim of the visit was to ask the loggers for cutting permissions and official documents. After a short discussion, a bulk of riot police and private security forces detained and beat up some of the peaceful activists.

The sad story of the fight for protection of Khimki forest is at a new peak after a couple of days ago illegal logging activities in the disputed area have been discovered. This story goes far beyond forest protection, it's about crimes against civil society and human rights violations, arbitrariness and corruption of officials (administration and police): Interaction between authorities and civil society have been accompanied by massive attacks on life and health of civil society activists, intimidation, threatening of activists' children etc.

The Khimki case more than just another "forest protection case" - it is a precedent for Russian civil society and involves all political levels up to the top - which makes it very delicate to deal with. For more information on the Khimki case, check out this forum - also here you can find explaining why this case is so important.

There is a video of todays scene on the GP Russia live blog - a bit long (10 min.) and in Russian - but worth to see the beginning and the end.

the Khimki forest news

In early April the laying of high-speed toll highway through the Khimki forest resumed despite of the findings of the independent commission on the inadmissibility of construction and availability of other options. Also six forest sites were set for sale for individual housing construction.
Government`s decision to continue construction of toll highway through the Khimki forest (while there are other options, including lower-cost, direct and short variants) shows that in terms of Government forest is the most low-value category of land and they don`t see fit to take care of forests. If this decision consider to be correct and we agree with him – the saving forests of our country will be forgotten for a long time.
The story of the Khimki forest is a very important precedent. If the route through the Khimki forest is built and the forest mostly destroyed, nobody will take care of other similar forests in densely populated areas of the country. Likely, many workers have to leave the forest too - people who take care of forest will only hinder to take forest lands away for building and so on.
You can help to save the Khimki forest if you send an email to the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev!
Details (in Russian): http://www.forestforum.ru/viewtopic.php?t=9215