Honest a peak

Legendary Russian ... vyhuhol! Opposition leaders continue to travel through the regions. On April 3, an ecological landing led by Evgenia Chirikova landed in Voronezh. Objective: to help local activists save the Khopersky reserve and its main inhabitant - Russian hacking. The New Times correspondent found out who threatens the peaks and who fights for her life

Evgenia Chirikova and Nikolai Lyaskin, the coordinator of the "School of Observers", appreciated the Khopersky reserve as a "heritage of a planetary scale"

Voronezh met Moscow activists cautiously: a minibus on which they had to travel around the region, two police cars with flashing lights were under guard at the airport. As the organizer of the trip, Konstantin Rubakhin, the head of the information portal of civil activity Openaction.ru, explained from the police, they called him another two days before the arrival of the guests and said that they would like to organize accompaniment. Under the clear leadership of people in the form, we went to a round table in the Azimut Overter-to discuss with ecologists, biologists, representatives of local authorities and all the indifferent, which will happen to the Khopersky reserve where relict animals are found, so far a very clean river hopper and Voronezh Black Earth, if 20 km from the environmental zone begins the development copper-nickel field. The question is not idle - already on May 15 the winner of the license competition will be announced.

Hoper River - the largest left tributary of the Don

Nickel gathered at the round table 50. Local press, human rights activists, activists of the “In Defense of the Hopra”, representatives of the Khopersky Reserve and even a person from the administration. “Believe me, if several people in this room do not want to get nickel in the chernozem lane, no one will do this,” Kirikova assured the audience.

The nickel threat hangs over the Voronezh region since the 70s of the last century, when the deposits were found. The director of the Ecosocis Voronezh Foundation Alexei Kozlov said that he had heard about the deposits, even when he studied at a local university on a geologist. But then it was believed that development would be impossible due to the low concentration of ore and the complexity of production. In addition, the Black Earth Region is around, so for a long time these deposits remained something like a reserve raw material base of non-ferrous metals, almost the largest in Europe

* * In Russia, this is the third deposit in reserves after the Norilsk region and the Kola Peninsula. . Periodically, the issue of development was raised, but had no development. So far, in January 2011, the general director of the Norilsk Nickel company Vladimir Strelkovsky did not meet with Vladimir Putin and proposed to revive the idea of ​​a tender for deposits. “On the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk region, their reserves are depleted, so they, of course, need Voronezh Nickel,” Kozlov explained. Putin approved the initiative of the old friend (in the 80s, Strelkovsky worked with him in the UKGB in Leningrad and the region.-The New Times), the local authorities represented by Governor Alexei Gordeev expressed support for investment, and soon the Rosnedra announced a tender. Three candidates: Norilskell, Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company and Russian Copper Company. But everyone is sure that the initiator will win. It is known that preliminary results will be announced on April 20, the final - May 15.

The main fear of local ecologists and the population: production, which a priori cannot be non -waste, will harm the protected area located only 20 km from the deposits. It is already known that if they decide to extract, then in a mine way. “The mines will have to be built several, they will build a plant for primary firing, then they are going to send a concentrate to the Murmansk region to Norilsk Nickel enterprises,” Kozlov told The New Times. -It will take a lot of water for alkaline-acid processes. So, they will build sumps for this piled water. Differences cannot be avoided, but here is groundwater, the Hoper River, all this can go to the Don. ”

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Evgenia Chirikova: “Believe me, if several people in this room do not want to get nickel in the chernozem strip, no one will do this”

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Museum of Local Lore in the village of Varvarino

For an honest city, the reserve is located about 200 km from Voronezh. The company from Moscow was made by local activists, mostly students. For example, Grigory Frolov, 22 years old, studies a lawyer, a smiling guy with a short beard, in a coat and sneakers. Or Lisa Sturova, a girl with a haircut almost to zero and huge round earrings. She is only 19, and she is already in the organizing committee of the rallies, and in the movement “in defense of the Hopra”, and in general - a civil activist for three years now. There were older people: for example, human rights activist Natalya Zvyagina, a pale woman about 30 years. "What is the Moscow Organizing Committee doing now?" She asked. Voronezh residents vying began to explain to Moscow guests that they expected more active actions from the capital. “We really hoped for you. It is impossible to raise people in Voronezh. As soon as you got 100 thousand, so ours stirred - 3 thousand were taken to the streets. For Voronezh, this is incredibly a lot, ”Student Grisha was getting excited. “There were no coordination with the regions. What can I say, even when you went here, you did not contact the local organizing committee, and here we are the main backbone of civil activity. And stop talking to us like small children, ”Zvyagin came.

“We didn’t come here from the organizing committee,” Chirikova argued. - And in general, the policy of Moscow activists now are specific affairs. We need to change the direction of activity ... ”“ So we ourselves thought of that, ”Frolov interrupted her. - We decided to carry out the reorganization of our organizing committee, they even came up with the name - “for an honest city”. We will participate in local elections, fight for the reserve and against any arbitrariness of the authorities. ”

The conversation was transferred to a peaceful direction, only returning to the problem of the reserve. Chirikova, using the example of the struggle for the Khimkinsky forest, began to explain how to attract the attention of the public to it. It is necessary to promote such topics, according to her, it is necessary as a brand. And to paint the internal organization of the movement as in business models: who is responsible for what directions, what shares should be held, what resources are needed for this. “The campaign should be large -scale, the goals are grandiose. Let the whole world know that a unique reserve can be destroyed, that a peak can die! You must record video features in foreign languages, you must release a newspaper about Hoper and distribute it throughout the region. Write songs, poems about the hack! Put the performances about the hack! "

Legendary Russian Khukhol

Khoper Khopersky Reserve is located next to the village of Alferovka. On one bank of the river, tall, a steep, - low village houses, on the other - a protected area covered with bare trees and snow remnants. The hopper is muddy, it seems very dirty, but this is because the ice goes along the river and the current is very fast. And so, they say, you can drink water from the river. As it turned out, almost all participants in the trip saw the reserve for the first time in their life. When asked how it was, student Grisha noticed that a painful topic was raised recently, and before just no one knew that the reserve should be saved. The ecologists who demanding protection requiring protection were not able to meet. “Hyshohol is still hibernated,” explained a local resident, a man of about sixty, in a camouflage jacket and rubber boots. - Yes, here and without it there are a lot of living creatures. White -headed eagles, for example. Turtles are found. All the time they peck, infection, but we do not eat them. It was this that grandfathers knew how to cook them, and now we only catch fish here. ” Nickel developments A man fears: “What is good to wait? Ground waters can be linked, but here is our hopper. They say, however, the workers will be places. But they also need miners, and the local people did not do anything like that. Are we going to wash with them there? "

In the neighboring village of Varvarino, the Museum of the Khopersky Reserve was opened in the village house of the 19th century. Exhibits are placed in two rooms. Tatyana Petrovna, a short woman of about fifty in Beige Shali and beret with a fur edge, an employee of the rural department of environmental education, met guests with surprise - they rarely see tourists here. She spoke about the reserve eagerly, and when it came to the development, she drew: “It is not clear how harmful it will be.” The central place in the exposition for a peak - a small stuffed one, similar to a mole with an animal's trunk sits on its hind legs, ridiculously lifting the front in the “I give up!” Pose ” When asked how many of these animals remained in the reserve, the museum’s employee could not answer: “They are difficult to count. Good weather will be - you will take into account a unit, bad - you will not take into account. But there are 100-150 pieces, probably. ”

The caretaker admitted that funding for a reserve and a museum from the federal budget, although allocated, is allocated. “To pay for the light-wrap and for salaries, but they are small-five thousand, for example, with a researcher.” Moscow guests promised Tatyana Petrovna to save the reserve, and goodbye bought all the circles with the inscriptions of Legendary Russian Vyhuhol, badges and magnets with a peak. Souvenirs with other animals had no demand.

Civil activists study the reserve layout in the museum of local lore

What next? “In the regions there should be people who know about local problems and know how to solve them. They can become new local leaders. So the Voronezh movement is a very positive signal, ”says Evgenia Chirikova. “We will create the“ Our Earth ”project, aimed not only in defense of objects such as the Khopersky Reserve.” The guys from the “In Defense of the Hopra” and the organizing committee of the rallies are also positive. “I am glad that there is interaction. We need this topic to be developed, ”Grisha shared.

Evgenia Chirikova and Hopra defenders

Whether the creeps will stop at the reserved places local activists - it is still unclear. In the company - applicants for the license attitude to environmental activity in the region of the skeptical. A source close to Norilsk Nickel management told The New Times that the company is suspected of if these are competitors? “These people simply do not understand anything. They argue that there will certainly be sulfur emissions, that arsenic there will take from somewhere and get into the water. We are just going to mines ore and concentrate to send to the Kola GMK, where products will already be manufactured. You can’t just separate the sulfur from the metal, she will go to Kola, along with a concentrate. ”

The representative of the Voronezh administration explained The New Times on an anonymity condition that if the competition is successful and one of the companies will receive a license, then only intelligence will be at the first six years: “Including environmental examination”. And the WWF representative Vladimir Krevrey told The New Times that the question still requires serious study: “I have no confidence that the mines will certainly harm the reserve. There are different technologies, and we do not yet know which one will be used. ”