Translated material
“Shelupon” for one and a half million. Year of struggle in Shies
A year ago, on the border of the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic, the struggle of the residents of the north began with the builders of the garbage training ground near the ShiES railway station. During this time, from small rural rallies, the confrontation has grown into thousands of protests in Arkhangelsk and Syktyvkar. Opponents of Shies celebrated the anniversary of protest with new rallies.
The village of Yarensk is the administrative center of the Lensky district of the Arkhangelsk region. The garbage landfill at Shies station is only 40 kilometers from here. On July 28, about 500 people from the Arkhangelsk region and the neighboring Republic of Komi arrived at the planned rally in Yarensk. At the beginning of the action, a member of the Board of the "Problem Protection Committee" Viktor Vishnevetsky from Syktyvkar in his speech recalled tough detention during an inconsistent procession in Moscow.
- All you saw yesterday what is happening - there people are fighting for their civil rights. But the government uses power against them. And what does the authorities apply to us? We have been fighting and beating the alarm for a year that it is [a giant landfill on Shies] - an environmental disaster not only for two regions, but for the entire European North. Repressions are used to us, we know people who are in danger of being arrested.
The inhabitants of Yarensk went to the first protest rally on October 18, 2018. They were the first to learn that at a small ShiES railway station it is planned to build a huge garbage training ground, where they would be taken from Moscow. A year ago, about two hundred people gathered for a rally, now almost 500.
Another protest point is the village of Urdom, which is 34 kilometers from Shies. It was here that the inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region first openly spoke out against the construction of the landfill in Shiies. In August 2018, 700 people were published in Urdom, now more than a thousand. It is no coincidence that in Yarensk and Urdom activists decided to hold rallies on the anniversary of the anti -humor protest.
-Under the ground on Shies is part of the Mid-Vodinsky Aquatic Horizon, which lies shallowly, in fact it is an underground river, a reserve of drinking water. Nowadays, it is a resource for all future generations of the country. The construction of the landfill over the aquifer is blasphemy. It will lead to the fact that all superficial and underground water that people drink will be destroyed. In the near future, in our north, in the edge of lakes, swamps, rivers and streams, there will be no water left for drinking at all. Water is needed not only by a person, but also to trees, fish, ground animals, this is a source of life. The landfill will destroy all living things not only next to Urdoma and Madmas, he will destroy the River Podchegda and Northern Dvina, ”said Alexander Scholkhoshtiev , Expert of the oldest environmental organization of Komi "Committee of Salvation of Pechora."
The filtrate from decaying garbage will poison the earth and water, gases - air
Before and after Sweethevtiev, people again repeated what consequences they expect if the planned landfill with the size of three thousand hectares, where they are going to store 2.3 million tons of unsorted garbage per year, will still be built. The places around Shies are mainly swampy, around the peat, 800 meters from the station - the Bovanenkovo -Ukhta -Torzhok gas pipeline, according to which gas under high pressure goes to Europe, a little further - the oil pipeline. If in a landfill, as often happens, the spontaneous combustion of garbage will begin, the danger of a technogenic disaster is great. The filtrate from decaying garbage will poison the earth and water, gases - air.
Over the past year, opponents of the construction of the landfill were faced with many problems: they were arrested, administrative affairs were aroused against them due to violations of the rules for organizing rallies and pickets and even comments on the Internet, clashes of security activists have repeatedly occurred at the Shies station. Now more than 70 fines are written out on Shiies defenders, the amount of which exceeds one and a half million rubles, and two criminal cases have been instituted - to Mikhail Gabov from Syktyvkar and Nikita Baryshnikov from Kotlas under article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Beatings"). Then the guards complained that the activists sprayed the gas spray in their direction.
According to activist Anna Shekalova , On the morning of June 6, 2019, the police of the Lensky district actually abducted her from their own house. First, Shekalov was held in the village plot, and then they were taken to the city of Kotlas, an accusation of an attack on the guard was brought to her almost 12 hours after the arrest.
At first she was given five days, but then the court extended the arrest twice. As a result, Anna spent more than two weeks in jail. In protest, she announced a hunger strike.
- When I already started to eat, I had everything: people brought food, bedding, all that I needed. Every day they went to me from the prosecutor's office and asked how they contain me here. I replied that people contain me, ”said Anna.
The famous Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomarev arrived at rallies on rallies on the anniversary of protest in the Arkhangelsk region. On the eve of the shares, he carried the “watch” for several days in the activists camp at Shies station.
- Billions of rubles go through the mafia canal, and it is very difficult to block it, because people who are very close to Putin receive the money. It is necessary to invest money in a separate fee, it is necessary to campaign for it, and these are also billions of rubles, which should simply go the other way, to other people. I do not know if this problem will be resolved. I watched Shiies and gradually began to conclude that a general social protest would begin with him, given that this protest is growing in the last year [throughout the country]. I talked about Shies to the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Tatyana Moskalkova. But all this is not so convincing until you yourself looked. I was there for several days, absorbed everything and realized that I had not yet seen such a self -organization. I am used to the fact that there is a large social movement, it makes decisions, gives instructions. This is not bad, this is not some kind of boss, but still there is some kind of organizational core. And here everything arose from below! I worried this only once-in the late 80s, when a democratic revolution was preparing in Russia, ”said Ponomarev.
The rallies ended with the appeal to the local authorities in support of the referendum against the import of waste from other regions into the Arkhangelsk region.
Camp and activists. "Technopark" was buried
Wet flags flutter over the camp in Shies, people in color raincoats go between the tents. A crowd of guards in black is moving along the concrete parade ground around the concrete parade ground - they have a solid. This is how the site of the landfill at Shiesa looks a year after the start of protests. “I saw two worlds on Shies: in one music plays, people dance, in the other - these very chopovites stand, look there, and they have such a longing in their eyes and at the same time anger,” says Lev Ponomarev.
Volunteers recorded violations at the construction site and quickly uploaded photos and videos on social networks
Two abandoned roads lead to the camp: one from the Gazprom technological highway, the second - from the village of Madmas. On the second, there are still the remains of one of the wagons of activists from a block floor called "Dom-2". In December 2018, people chose a place on neutral territory together with the police and foresters and put the first trailer - the “watch”, in which several people were on duty for 24 hours. Volunteers recorded violations at the construction site and quickly uploaded photos and videos on social networks. In January 2019, there were already two wagons in Shiies, and at the end of February there were three. Activists organized the duty posts along the perimeter of the landfill under construction and blocked two abandoned forest roads leading to the station. Since that time, construction work in Shies has stopped: fuel has ended for equipment.
On the night of March 15, 2019, during a collision with the workers, the Dom-2 trailer was demolished by an excavator. Then people tried to stop the equipment leaving the scene. Its owner incurred large losses due to downtime, but the damage would have increased repeatedly if the heavy trucks could not be taken out of Shies to melting snow. Activists were able to stop the column, but later the traffic police dresses of the Arkhangelsk region and Komi helped the owner to take out equipment from the station. In April 2019, the police arrested and took the Wakhta trailer out of the forest. A little later, another one was taken from the forest, and people moved to the tent camp.
Today in the camp of activists in Shies about 60 tents: on weekdays, most of them are empty, they come to support the camp mainly on weekends. Constantly in the camp there are a little more than 20 people-mainly residents of the Arkhangelsk region and Komi, but come from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities.
Next to the canopies under which tea they warm and eat at a common table are suspended large bags and boxes are installed for separate garbage collection - then the activists themselves take it out. Nearby in tents and greenhouses there are blankets, warm things, food, and medicines. Not far from the camp, next to a large stream, a bathhouse is arranged in the tent. The water in the stream of brown shade due to peat in the lands.
Electricity for the Internet, charging phones and lighting the camp gives a small diesel generator. Between the tent camp and the dining room - the scene and sound -integrating equipment. In early July, the Moscow group "Arkady Kot" gave a concert here. The musicians decided to come, including after they learned that their song “Wall” became an unofficial anthem of protesters. Not far from household tents - installation - the grave of the Technopark, decorated with a wreath and signed by the words "I do not love, do not remember, do not grieve." Around - trees planted by activists in return for felled.
Ecotactivist from Yekaterinburg Andrei Prytkov said that he came to ShiES to adopt the experience of conducting referenda at the regional level. He and his associates want to raise the question of the election of the mayor of Yekaterinburg, and this is possible only in the regional referendum. In May and June, Andrei participated in protests against the construction of the temple on the site of the square in the city center.
Sobyanin and Vorobyov are involved in this lawless
- I am from the "city of demons", as some comrades called him. We also hold a referendum in Yekaterinburg after all the events that occurred in our landmark. And here the Arkhangelsk Regional Court said that a referendum [on the ban on the import of waste from other constituent entities of the Russian Federation] can and should be carried out, ”said Prytkov. - Already the second year of the confrontation of the people went to the lawlessness of power. [Moscow Mayor Sergei] Sobyanin, [Governor of the Moscow Region Andrei] Vorobyov is involved in this lawlessness, and I believe that they behave very ugly. The northerners have something to learn. I am sure that they will help me to establish contacts with Arkhangelsk lawyers who will help our committee, we will take an example from Shies.
Today, work at the landfill is not underway: after the promise of President Vladimir Putin , to talk with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and the governor of the Arkhangelsk region Igor Orlov about plans to place Moscow garbage at ShiES hardware under construction, Technopark has officially announced the termination of work at construction on June 15, 2019 and the beginning of examinations and inspections.
But activists do not stop the watch. On June 20, they were preparing to go on a straight line with the president: about 600 people came to Shies to prevent the opinions of local residents. However, activists were not taken to a direct line with Putin, and they recorded a video appeal.
"They called us triper, alcoholics and parasites"
On July 27, 2019, the group “VKontakte Social Network” group appeared information that the police, riot police and the Russian Guard left the ShiES station, and Major Alexei Mammadov, deputy chief of the OMVD of the Land District, conflicting with the protesters, quit. "Since April, the police who exist on our taxes were on Shies. During this time they did not prevent a single attack on activists, did not institute a single case about the beating of people, but managed to fabricate a bunch of affairs against the defenders of the North. That is, they simply spent our taxes. Moreover, some employees of the CTA COP" Guarantor Safety "directly declared that they could do it because they were guarded - said in the message.
The station really left most of the police, but about fifty guards still remain here. According to the SPARK base, in December 2018, the GBU of the city of Moscow "Automobile Roads", which received 15 hectares in Shies for free of charge from the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Arkhangelsk Region, entered into a contract with the CCE of Safety for 2020 for about 1.2 billion rubles. Until recently, Chop’s employees guarded the technique of Technopark, but after it was taken out, they claim that they are guarding the territory that the company received in sublease from Russian Railways.
So they only behave in the zone. And they do not show documents, although it is supposed
-It seems to me that here half of the guards were driven from somewhere from the zone. They said "either you will sit here, or on the bunks." Why do I think so? Well, more recently, it was hot, one of them was undressed, and the very back of the tattoos with domes, ”says Ecotactivist Alexander Neumann . -Or I’m going to somehow stumble on how one of the guards reports the other, says to him: "Rooster, look into your eyes when they talk to you." So they only behave in the zone. Yes, and they never show documents, although it is supposed to [by law on private security organizations, guards must wear badge with the name and surname and name Chop and appear at the request of citizens], maybe they have no documents.
Employees of the Civil Code "Guarantor Security" communicate mainly with each other or with police. They try not to speak with men living in the camp of activists, but they make an exception for girls, however, these conversations can not always be pleasant.
- How they just did not call us: with three -peris, and alcoholics, and parasites. They called me a drug addict, - one of the girls is indignant and nods to the other: “And she works in two jobs and comes to duty here on the weekend, but for them she is a parasite!” - Two activists told.
New level
Local protest near the Shies station from the regional federal became quite quickly. On April 7, 2019, after the governor of the Arkhangelsk region, Igor Orlov at one of the meetings, called the Shuoponyas protruding against the construction of the landfill, from three to ten thousand peoplecame to the most massive unauthorized rally in Arkhangelsk. When the action ended, some of the protesters decided to stay on Lenin Square until their requirements are met. The idea of "ecobesserchiki" over time picked up in Kotlas and Syktyvkar.
In the capital of Komi, located 95 kilometers from Shies, the April rally against the construction of the training ground gathered two thousand people, and in early June seven thousand protesters had already come to a similar action. In addition to the immediate stop of building a giant landfill and the resignation of governors of the Arkhangelsk region and Komi, the protesters in Syktyvkar demanded the immediate resignation of President Putin, who was accused of colonial policy and neglect the interests of people living in the regions. Loud statements, ongoing protests in the regions and clashes of the police and guards with activists at Shiies itself led to the fact that independent media in Russia began to write more and more about the problem.
The construction of the landfill was interested in the countries of the Barenstz Region, which may suffer if the poisonous landfill filtrate will poison water in the Northern Dvina, as well as journalists from Germany, France, America and even Japan. In mid-July at the UN at the 12th session of the expert mechanism for the rights of indigenous peoples, on behalf of the interregional public movement of the Komi-Yamers, the Russian woman Natalya Chuprova spoke. She spoke about the confrontation in Shies and terrible risks that threaten not only the north-west of Russia, but also in Europe. “In the event of the operation of the landfill, the system of pools of the East European platform will be polluted, which will lead to pollution of all groundwater in the European part of Russia, as well as countries of eastern and central Europe. A real threat of lack of drinking water in the foreseeable future throughout the European North is created, which can cause irreparable damage to the entire Barents Region,” the statement said in a statement that is Chuprova, which is Chuprova. Published on her page on the social network “VKontakte”.
Representatives of the four ecological organizations of the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic, as well as the initiative group "Pomoria, did notsend an open letter to the member countries and observers of the Barents Council of the region and the governments of the Scandinavian countries. In it, they talked about huge ecological risks that the construction of a giant landfill, and said that they no longer believe in the leadership of Russia, which did not hear them.