Everything is right, everything is right

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov published an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta in which he supported the plan to build a Moscow-St. Petersburg highway through the Khimki forest. Let us recall that on August 26, when President Dmitry Medvedev, having listened either to the public, or to the United Russia party, or to someone else, ordered to suspend deforestation, the prefect of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow, Oleg Mitvol, said that Luzhkov supported an alternative the option of laying the route is through the Molzhaninovo area, which was also supported by the defenders of the Khimki Forest. However, on September 3, Luzhkov's press secretary Sergei Tsoi said that Mitvol's message had not been agreed upon with the mayor. The only strange thing is why Tsoi waited a whole week. Meanwhile, United Russia, which for some reason earlier asked Medvedev to order a halt to logging, supported the current option of building a highway through the forest.

Luzhkov writes that “everything seemed to be normal. The decision to build was made back in 2004, the responsible parties and participants were identified, and a consortium was created.” And suddenly, they say, unexpectedly, “a conflict of universal proportions around the actually completed clearing of a clearing for construction.” Well, yes, of course, when some environmentalists and social activists speak out, and the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper is beaten almost to death, and all this happens long before the logging begins, you don’t have to notice, this is not a conflict or even an obstacle.

About the project to build a highway through Molzhaninovo, Luzhkov says that it can be implemented, but it will be expensive and difficult. All sorts of problems will arise. “Firstly, compensation for demolished cottages. Here we will have to allocate from 120 to 150 million rubles to each farm. Add to this the provision of another piece of land and resettlement. Plus - a big loss of time,” says the mayor and simultaneously kicks environmentalists: “We will have to cut down 80 hectares of trees on the periphery of the Khimki forest. Then the road will pass through the natural complex through swamps, where our ecologists will definitely find rare birds, frogs, leeches and snails.” In addition, “by laying the route along Molzhaninovka, we are throwing away 200 thousand square meters. meters of housing being prepared for construction. 3-4 thousand families will be left for a long time (or even forever) without improved living conditions or without their “corner” at all,” Luzhkov cries and ends this passage with a meaningful phrase: “When you count not in meters, but in human destinies, then the price of the issue is more obvious.”

About the option of building a route through the forest, Luzhkov says that it is justified, that it is cheaper, that it is technically prepared, and although there are “environmental and some other costs,” but “but we avoid a number of social and environmental problems.”

Further, the mayor of Moscow solemnly declares that the story of the Khimki forest and the construction of the highway “is the most important test of the country’s ability to modernize. Create an effective state and a strong civil society.” Here it already becomes clear that anyone who dares to object automatically becomes an enemy of modernization, the state and society.

So, Moscow supported deforestation, there is no need to talk about the Moscow region - Governor Boris Gromov successfully held hearings (citizens, it can be assumed, were not informed about their conduct), where almost all those present were in favor of laying a route through the forest. Previously, the Kremlin said that the final decision would be made after hearings in the Public Chamber. There is a fear that these hearings, whatever their outcome, will turn out to be a mere formality. The authorities showed that they paid attention to the problem and continued to go their own way.