Yesterday morning, city administration representatives headed by Vladimir Antonov, deputy chairman of the committee for improvement and road management, drove construction equipment to the concrete fence of the third stage of the Moby Dik terminal, which dismantled part of the barrier, said a representative of the press service of the Federal State Enterprise “North-West Directorate of Rosstroy - Directorate of the Complex of Protective Structures of St. Petersburg from Floods”. According to him, yesterday the city was supposed to transfer this land to the directorate for construction work, but Moby Dik has not yet vacated the site. On the disputed territory, officials and employees of the directorate found a guard booth, two vans, which Moby Dik tried to use to cover the gaps in the fence, and two closed containers. Today, the directorate is going to let builders onto the vacated site.

At the end of April, the St. Petersburg government cancelled its resolution that leased the land to Moby Dik for the construction of the third stage of the terminal. But the lease agreement has not yet been terminated, says Alexey Bakirey, deputy chairman of the committee on transport and transit policy; the resolution only came into effect yesterday. However, Moby Dik signed an additional agreement to the lease agreement with the city back in late September 2006 and pledged to vacate the land by the end of October last year.

It was not possible to contact representatives of Moby Dick yesterday. Earlier, the chairman of the board of directors of Moby Dick, Kimmo Nordstrom, said that the company considers the claims of the city and Rosstroy to be illegal.

The city had the right to enter the site, since Moby Dick itself committed to clean it up last fall, says DLA Piper senior lawyer Alexey Skvortsov. The company is unlikely to be able to challenge yesterday's actions by officials in court, the lawyer believes.

Moby Dick is being evicted