The presidential administration was transferred to the production of nickel in the Black Earth Region

In Moscow, activists of the movement in defense of Hopra handed over to the presidential administration 104 thousand signatures collected by them against the development of copper-nickel deposits. This was reported by the correspondent of "faces".

More than 50 people from the Voronezh, Volgograd and neighboring regions came to the President’s reception at Ilyinka and handed over boxes with signatures through the Department for the appeal of citizens. Activists were accompanied by State Duma deputy from the Voronezh region Ruslan GOSTEV. The police did not try to stop the action.

Video Alexandra Ageeva:

Signatures in the defense of Hopra

At the end of 2011, a competition was announced for geological study, exploration and extraction of copper-nickel ores in the subsoil sites of federal significance Elanskoye and Elkinskoye in the Voronezh region. This caused protests among local residents.

According to experts, the development of a deposit in the agrarian district of the Central Black Earth region, in the immediate vicinity of the Khopersky reserve, will threaten the flood of Hopra and ultimately the entire Azov basin, and the regional agriculture will be incomparably greater compared to the benefits of the copper -nickel mines. Air pollution, a decrease in water quality and food products will inevitably negatively affect the health of the population.

In September 2012, actions against a nickel project in the Black Earth region were held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Lipetsk, Uryupinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Astrakhan, Sochi, Murmansk, Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Ryazan, Belgorod, Volgograd, Perm, Ivanovo, Chelyabinsk, Kaliningsk, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad, Kaliningrad, and Kaliningrad, and Kaliningrad, and Kaliningrad, and Kaliningrad, and Kaliningrad, and Kaliningrad. Belgorod, Vladikavkaz, Tartu (Estonia). The main protests were held in Voronezh, where two thousand people signed a rally resolution. The shares also took place in several cities and villages of the Tambov, Nizhny Novgorod and Voronezh region.

After the start of exploration, protests grew into an open confrontation. Cleans arose between protesters and employees of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company. A number of criminal cases against activists were instituted.

In October, a resident of Uryupinsk, Mikhail Boyarishchev , was sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony on charges of arson of exploration equipment in the Novokhopersky district. The defense blames that he is innocent and appealed.

Igor Zhitenev and Mikhail Bezmensky are in custody. They are accused of especially large -scale fraud. The basis for initiating the case was the statement of the Deputy General Director of the UMMC Peter Yamov. He argued that the eco -defenders demanded money from the company, otherwise threatening the continuation of protests, as well as "intentional damage to property."