They won't lag behind

The leader of the Movement in Defense of the Khimki Forest, Evgenia Chirikova, was taken into custody on August 5. This happened after she, along with lawyer Artur Grokhovsky, left the Khimki police department from interrogation. With them was another activist in defense of the forest, Yaroslav Nikitenko. The police stopped them, blocked the central exits, took them to the back entrance, took away Chirikova and Nikitenko’s mobile phones, loaded Nikitenko into the trunk, and Chirikova and Grokhovsky into the back seat and took them to court. Chirikova is accused of disobeying police officers on July 28. It should be recalled that on July 28, Chirikova and her associates were detained on charges of organizing a rally in the forest, although there was no rally there; moreover, at the moment when the police attacked them, they were already leaving the forest. After this, Chirikova and others were kept for the whole night in the police department, and their mobile phones were taken away. Let us also recall that on August 4 she was extremely rudely detained in the center of Moscow in front of journalists in order to be taken to the same police department to testify as a witness in the case of an attack on the administration of Khimki, which she was not a witness to.

In the Khimki Magistrate's Court, it turned out that Chirikova was accused of allegedly blocking cars and agitating to block Leningradsky Avenue. Employees of the Khimki police department Artem Shopenkov, Alexander Vasiliev and Artem Maksimov spoke about this in court. In particular, they mentioned the police UAZ blocked by Chirikova, which on July 28 was not at the scene at all. They also stated that she called for burning all the construction equipment. None of the witnesses who were not police officers confirmed their testimony. As a result, Chirikova was sentenced to a fine of one and a half thousand rubles for organizing an unauthorized rally. For disobedience to police officers (a decision on this charge has not yet been made), Chirikova could be sentenced to 15 days in prison. Later it became known that for disobedience the leader of the Movement in Defense of the Khimki Forest was sentenced to a fine of 800 rubles.
On August 7, from 17.00 to 18.00 in Moscow, at the monument to Griboyedov near the Chistye Prudy metro station, an action will be held in support of the fight against deforestation of the Khimki forest and in defense of anti-fascists Alexei Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov, arrested on suspicion of riots in Khimki.