Bypassing the defenders of the Khimki forest

Independent environmentalists fear imitation of public hearings

Defenders of the Khimki Forest fear that a new public discussion of the construction of the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway may only become “an imitation of studying popular opinion.” Today a meeting of the public council of the United Russia party is due to take place, at which United Russia members, who at the end of last week unexpectedly stood up for the Khimki forest and appealed to President Medvedev, intended to once again discuss the feasibility of this particular road route with road construction specialists and environmental experts . However, as the leader of the movement “In Defense of the Khimki Forest”, Evgenia Chirikova, told Vremya Novostei yesterday, the main opponents of the destruction of the forest were not invited to participate in the discussion.

“This is not a good sign. Without the people, the decision will be anti-people,” said Ms. Chirikova, who believes that it was the defenders of the Khimki Forest who managed to unite the public of Moscow and the Moscow region in the fight for the environmental well-being of the region. “The problem was brought to the presidential level thanks to the active role of the public,” Ms. Chirikova recalled. True, the formal reaction of President Dmitry Medvedev to the recently aggravated conflict between social activists and highway builders who are actively deforesting came only after representatives of the ruling party intervened in the situation. On Thursday, United Russia addressed the head of state with a proposal to “carefully understand the situation” in Khimki, which was followed by the president’s statement encouraging forest defenders to suspend construction of the highway (see Vremya Novostey, August 27) . On Friday, Prime Minister Putin confirmed that he had previously discussed with the president the possibility of holding additional hearings and agreed that there was a need for a broader discussion of the project, which has attracted so much criticism.

Now the “greens” fear that this decision of the country’s top leadership will be sabotaged in every possible way, and that officials from the Ministry of Transport and the Khimki administration will imitate the public discussion. At the very least, according to Ms. Chirikova, the Khimki administration is already conducting a massive campaign among the city’s population in favor of the current highway construction project. “Workers of city-forming enterprises, for example the Energomash plant, employees of social security services, clinics, educational institutions, and private entrepreneurs complain that signatures are being collected from them under various pretexts for laying a road through the forest,” says Ms. Chirikova. According to her, now that there is a real chance to find a compromise in which residents will have both a highway and a forest, “administrative resources are being used to destroy civil society.”

It is noteworthy that even on the website of the Khimki urban district, official news about the situation with the development of the forest belt is published on behalf of ordinary residents and a certain initiative group “Our City”. “When the need to build a highway became urgent, experts considered all its options, even the stupidest ones. But stupidity and perfection have no limits,” says a message on the official Khimki website. The anonymous authors of this message are confident that the harm from alternative routes will be “much greater than from deforestation.”

The willingness of the leaders of the ruling party to fight for a revision of the expressway construction project is also questionable. In their statements, United Russia members emphasize the need for a backup to the Leningradskoe Highway and warn that they advocated re-discussing the project, and not revising it. In a statement, the Secretary of the Presidium of the General Council of the United Russia party, Vyacheslav Volodin, said that “there are no decisions that satisfy absolutely all interested parties in all aspects.” “The government made the right decision to build a new Moscow-St. Petersburg road, since the current route is choked by transport problems,” he emphasized. In addition, Mr. Volodin said that the party is not ready to involve in discussions those “who discredited themselves during the conflict.” “We do not accept the position of some provocateurs and rioters who are using the situation around the Khimki forest for self-promotion and achieving selfish goals. You cannot deceive citizens under the guise of environmental problems. Forest defenders should be civilized people, not forest animals,” Mr. Volodin is quoted as saying on the party’s official website.

The defenders of the Khimki Forest took this statement personally and considered it a big step back on the part of United Russia. “The level of discussion has sharply decreased and turned into insults,” Ms. Chirikova told Vremya Novostei. According to independent environmentalists, a truly objective decision can only be made at the level of a special commission under the president, for example on the basis of the Human Rights Council, and with the participation of all interested parties. And they count on the further participation of the head of state in this issue. “There is every chance to defend the forest. The people have shown that they are ready to defend their position. And even if everything is turned back and the president’s decision is not implemented, nothing good will come of it,” the defenders of the Khimki forest are inspired. Today, the “greens”, together with ecologists from Greenpeace and the Wildlife Fund (WWF), intend to go to the site and assess the extent of the damage already caused to the forest during a month and a half of logging work.

Yulia KHOMCHENKO