Protesters attack government officials outside Moscow as landfill scandal turns violent

“You’re a disgrace!” “You’re murderers!” “Resign!” This is what Volokolamsk head Evgeny Gavrilov and Moscow Governor Andrey Vorobyov heard from angry protesters, when they arrived at a local hospital on Wednesday to visit 23 school children being treated for poisoning apparently caused by hydrogen sulfide released at a nearby landfill. Residents have been protesting the “Yadrovo” trash dump for weeks, several times trying to block garbage trucks, resulting in a handful of detentions by police.

Parents and several hundred Volokolamsk residents protested again on Wednesday, this time outside the hospital where the 23 children were being treated. Gavrilov and Vorobyov decided to speak to the crowd, but they found more hostility than sympathy, despite the governor’s pledge to “get rid of the stink” by June. Some locals threw snowballs.

Gavrilov later found himself surrounded by angry demonstrators, one of whom started grabbing and shoving him. Police then escorted Gavrilov to shelter, inside the hospital, and riot police were dispatched to the area.

Despite the apparent poisoning of so many children, Russia’s federal consumer protection watchdog reported no harmful substances in the air on March 21.