Court against the forest

On March 1, the Supreme Court considered the application of the Movement of Defenders of the Khimki Forest, which demanded to cancel the government order on the transfer of the territory of the unique forest park to transport land for the construction of the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway. The government was represented, of course, not by its chairman, Vladimir Putin, or even by the Ministry of Transport, but by the Ministry of Agriculture, from whose jurisdiction the forest park was removed by government decision. The plaintiffs argued that the order signed by Putin violates the law, according to which forest park areas cannot be transferred to transport land if there are other transport options. The defendants argued at the same time that the existence of alternative options that the government was considering is evidence that the order was adopted in accordance with the law, and that in fact there were no other options, since they were all for one reason or another. reasons are unacceptable.

The plaintiffs must be sent the full text of the court decision, after which they will appeal it to the Supreme Court panel.