Evgenia Chirikova was detained in Krasnodar for picketing against the case of environmentalist Gazaryan

Krasnodar police officers detained the leader of the movement “In Defense of the Khimki Forest” Evgenia Chirikova on Monday for participating in an unauthorized picket in support of the Kuban environmentalist Suren Ghazaryan, the head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city, Ilya Shakalov, told Interfax .

“Today, near the administration of the Krasnodar region, she and another person, a guy, were taken away for holding an unauthorized event. They had posters. They were taken to the police department,” Shakalov said.

According to him, an administrative protocol will be drawn up against the detainees under Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code (“Violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding an event”).

Participants in the picket outside the administration of the Krasnodar Territory protested against the arrest of Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus activist Suren Ghazaryan, who will appear in court on Tuesday on a criminal case for damaging a fence near the facility, which environmentalists call the “dacha” of the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Alexander Tkachev.

According to environmentalists, in the Lermontov forestry in the Tuapse region, authorities illegally fenced off 7 hectares of land near the Black Sea. In November, activists Suren Ghazaryan and Yevgeny Vitishko, as a sign of protest, painted the fence with the inscriptions: “This is our land,” “This is our forest,” and dismantled one of the sections of the fence, allegedly to gain access to the fenced area. A criminal case was opened against them under the article “Causing significant damage to property for hooligan reasons” (Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Environmentalists face up to five years in prison.