They broke firewood

The forest near Moscow became a battlefield

The Khimkinsky forest - this phrase has become a symbol of the confrontation of society and power. In essence, a small piece of land-1000 hectares-is no longer just an arena of the struggle of ecologists and builders of the paid road of Moscow-Sank-Petersburg. The struggle for the forest went beyond the district and region, transferred to the pages of newspapers and magazines, to television, to the Internet, it already reached the offices of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Strasbourg Court. Similar stories hundreds throughout the country. And all of them are about the right of people to be heard, even if their arguments are not absolute
“While we are going here pointily, the authorities will not listen to us, but if we block Leningradka, then the Governor Gromov, and Putin, and Medvedev will come in an instant. You won’t be so easy for officials, ”a local resident Nadezhda campaigned on the field at the Starbeevo Forest Defense Forces campaigned on the field at the village of Starbeevo. This fee in the field on August 2 was actually the last action of the public held near the forest. The Ecologists camp on July 28 was already eliminated by riot police, Chopovtsy guarding the deforestation, and in Khimki public meetings instantly disperses the police. But the clean field did not save. In place of the gathering of the Khimkinsky activists, law enforcement officers were waiting for law enforcement officers. In a few minutes, all the leaders were detained, including the Yabllennik, Sergei Mitrokhin and the head of the “Left Front” Sergei Udaltsov, put them on the bus and took away, and the rest, apparently, were already considered non -hazardous and left in the field. “We are told that people do not have enough fires to extinguish, and then about a hundred police officers were gathered,” Gabi from the village of Lobanovo simply did not understand that for the Khimki police, the fight against ecologists is much more important than fires.

How they began to cut down the battle for the Khimki forest for more than three years. In 2004, the Ministry of Transport decided to build a paid high-speed highway Moscow-St. Petersburg, which should go through the forest. And in the spring of 2006, the Khimchanes learned about the decree of the Governor of the Moscow Region Gromov. The head of the region, with a wide hand, took the clearing of the clearing of the clearing in the forest with a width of 600 meters under the construction of the road, in addition, three kilometers on both sides of the road were allocated for the construction of commercial real estate. As a result, 90% of the forest would be cut down. Protest shares began in the city.

In 2008, in the courtyard of his house in Starbeev, the editor -in -chief of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper Mikhail Beketov was brutally beaten, who in detail covered the situation around the forest. He was in a coma for a long time, now the journalist cannot move independently and speak.

The first attempts to cut down the forests began in 2009, even then activists, led by Evgenia Chirikova (read the first tent camps about the leader of the Khimki disagreements on page 22), then the police began to disperse people. Over time, the regional government went to some concessions - now only a clearing of 100 meters wide is allocated under the road. But, according to the defenders, the forest will die in one way or another - the track will violate its ecosystem. The final sentence in November 2009 was issued by Vladimir Putin, signing a decree on the transfer of forest to transport land.

Who climbs into a loop? Activists assure that they are not at all against building the road, only it needs to be laid out in another place: in the place of the Khimkinsky forest, the road makes a loop. According to Evgenia Chirikova, this, firstly, lengthens the route, and secondly, it reduces the speed of car movement along it. Initially, it was assumed that the highway would go parallel to the October Railway, so the northern Rocada should go in Moscow, with which the track should ultimately connect.

According to the scientific director of the Research Institute of Transport and Road Facilities, Mikhail Blinkin, the best option for building the road does not exist, all of them have very serious flaws. “Two options rejected by the builders are a simple expansion of Leningradka and laying the road through the area of Molzhaninovo are fraught with big expenses, and this makes them unpromising for officials,” says Blinkin. But the visible cheapness of the road through the forest is explained only by the fact that here the Ministry of Transport directly agreed with the Ministry of Forestry: both there and there are budget money, which could simply be spent on papers. No owners who would have to pay real money for the redemption of land, construction for them, etc., - no. But the most important, according to the expert, is not discussed at all. None of the options, Blinkin explains, does not consider the medium -term future: after all, after the road through the forest or - suddenly - through the Molzhaninovo will be built, it will still take off to the Businovsky interchange to the Moscow Ring Road, which does not lead to the beautiful Moscow Leningradka, but to nowhere, because the Northern Rocada, part of which should become the Businovsky denouement, exists only in the project. And this is a completely typical situation. Neither the designers, nor the builders, nor the authorities have a single thought-out plan, which would take into account not only future transport needs, but also socio-infrastructure. No one looks forward - for the date of completion of construction and the development of allocated funds. “So a good option simply does not exist. Nobody was developing it at all, ”summarizes Blinkin.

Another circumstance: the road will be paid, travel for one kilometer will cost 3.6 rubles for a car and 12.24 rubles for a cargo. Get on a passenger car to St. Petersburg - will fly 2.5 thousand rubles. There is even more truck on the truck. So the problem of traffic jams will remain - drivers will prefer free Leningradka. “In general, Khimki is a pilot project. If here it is possible to successfully cut down the forest under the highway, it means that the same can be done for the construction of the Central Ring Road, also paid, ”says one of Sergei activists. “But the construction of the CCAD will finally destroy the forest protective belt of the capital.” While the builders of the road are looking for new investors instead of a doubly European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the ecologists are waiting for an answer from the European Court of Human Rights, among local residents, not the most peaceful proposals are again and again: to block Leningradka or simply demand a referendum on the shift of the regional and even federal authorities.

➊ The track is in Moscow in the territory of Moscow in a common transport corridor with the October Railway.
➋ At the entrance to Khimki, the road sharply turns to the forest park.
➌ A forest belt will be destroyed here, separating residential buildings from the city landfill, which is saved by the project.
➍ The track crosses the Moscow-Volga channel and invades the territory of unique oak groves.
➎ A wide clearing will dissipate the Khimkinsky forest, which will lead to the degradation of forestry - the habitat of many animal species (moose, wild boars, foxes, etc.).
➏ One of the unique natural places of the forest park - the cranberry swamp previously intended to assign the status of protected areas (specially protected natural territory). In the case of the project, the swamp will be irreparably destroyed.
➐ The new road should also pass along another protected area - the Klyazma River Valley, where the transport denouement is also provided, which will inevitably destroy the river ecosystem with its inhabitants (river birds, fish, insects).
➑ After the Khimkinsky forest, the highway approaches the airport.
➒ From Sheremetyevo, the road again follows along the October railway - Having made a loop that lengthens the route by several kilometers, all the more not justifying the proposed project.

Chronology of the struggle for the Khimki forest
Spring 2007. Residents of Khimki learn about the resolution of Governor Gromov (dated April 2006) about the construction of the road through the forest.
June - November 2007. A series of rallies in Khimki and Moscow.
May 2008. They explode the car of the editor -in -chief of Khimkinskaya Pravda Mikhail Beketov.
August 2008. The start of the work of an perpetual protest camp at the edge of the forest.
November 2008. In the Khimkinsky district near the village of Starbeevo on Beketov, an attack was made. Bottom line: closed head injury, multiple hematomas, fracture of the lower leg.
December 2008. Mayor Khimki Vladimir Strelchenko canceled the order he signed on the cutting of the forest. But the plans for the construction of the road have not changed.
June 2009. Under the pressure of the public, the designers of the road decide 30 times to reduce the strip under the highway in the Khimkinsky forest.
July 2009. The Governor of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov signed a resolution regarding the reduction in deforestation from 3 km to 100 meters.
September 2009. Yuri Trutnev, the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, petitions for the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Agriculture about the transfer of the highway and the preservation of the forest.
January 2010. Khimkinsky forest defend 40 environmental organizations in Russia. They urge banks not to lend to the project.
March 1, 2010. By a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, 150 hectares of the Khimkinsky forest are transferred from the forest fund to the Fund of Transport. Ecologists will appeal the decision in Strasbourg.
July 15, 2010. Environmentalists organize round -the -clock duty to prevent deforestation.
July 23, 2010. The environmental camp is defeated.
July 28, 2010. OMON finally liquidated the camp of forest defenders.