Obstacle Campaign

The leader of the movement “In Defense of the Khimki Forest”, Evgenia Chirikova, who had just challenged the decision to refuse her registration as a candidate for the post of mayor of Khimki, received a summons on February 11 for a new summons to court. Another candidate for the post of mayor (which one is still unknown to her, since she herself has not yet seen the agenda) filed a lawsuit demanding that Chirikova’s registration be canceled again.

First, the Khimki election commission tried to cancel Chirikova’s registration. This was explained by the fact that the signature sheets for Chirikova did not contain information about the citizenship of voters. However, on February 6, the Moscow Region Election Commission reversed the decision to refuse Chirikova’s registration.

The movement “In Defense of the Khimki Forest” is the main opponent of the current mayor of the city, Vladimir Strelchenko, who plans to cut down the Khimki forest for the construction of the highway. As you know, the editor-in-chief of Khimkinskaya Pravda, Mikhail Beketov, who openly criticized the city authorities, including in connection with plans for deforestation, was severely beaten in November 2008, he had to have his fingers and shin amputated, as well as undergo an operation to remove bone fragments from the brain. Now he is in the Sklifosovsky Institute, and the investigator ordered to strengthen his security.

On February 11, there was another attack on the defenders of the Khimki forest: one of the activists, Irina Tyukacheva, who was distributing the newspaper “Khimki Truth Is Alive,” was detained by a policeman, saying that he had information about an uncoordinated rally. At the police station, she indicated in the protocol that she had not broken the law. The head of the department, who arrived at that time, told her that she was wrong and took away her copy of the newspaper. Currently, Interfax reports from her words, she is waiting at the department for the completion of a survey of two local residents who came to support her. Later, the head of the department told her that there was indeed nothing illegal in her actions and she was free. She had to wait several hours to hear it. However, no one prevented her from leaving the department.