Regional authorities shut down construction of controversial landfill in Russia’s Far North

The authorities in Russia’s far northern Arkhangelsk region have decided to shut down construction of a major landfill near the Shiyes train station, located on the border with the neighboring Komi Republic.

“The Arkhangelsk region’s government has unilaterally terminated its agreement with ‘Tekhnopark LLC’,” the regional authorities wrote on their official VKontakte page, referring to the company under contract to build the landfill. “The regional government is carrying out planned work to shut down the ‘Shiyes Eco Technopark’ project.”

According to the region’s economic development minister, the landfill’s construction has been held up for over a year, Mediazona reports.

Since 2018, residents of the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic have carried out mass protests opposing the landfill’s construction. The site was originally intended to take in waste from Moscow. Ecological activists campaigning against the landfill have also maintained a protest encampment at the Shiyes station for over two years, maintaining that it would devastate the local environment.

In April 2020, the governors of both the Arkhangelsk region and the Komi Republic resigned; the newly appointed acting governors came out against the landfill project.