Affrontements dans la périphérie de Moscou – juillet 2010
Emeute inhabituelle en Russie
Les Echos
30/07/10
Près de 500 jeunes gens, dont certains masqués, ont attaqué hier des locaux administratifs dans la banlieue de Moscou, un événement rare dans un pays où les manifestations peuvent être réprimées très sévèrement. Se réclamant de l’anarchisme ou de l’antifascisme, les émeutiers auraient utilisé des armes à feu, selon des médias russes. Ce raid s’est déroulé en marge de protestations contre la destruction d’une forêt pour une nouvelle autoroute, contestée depuis trois ans par les habitants de Khimki, une ville proche de la capitale russe. Ces derniers ont multiplié les lettres ouvertes aux autorités et les pétitions, sans succès. Ces mobilisations citoyennes, généralement pacifiques, contre l’arbitraire des autorités se sont multipliées ces dernières années dans un pays à l’opposition muselée par le pouvoir.
Russia/ In 500 contro abbattimento foresta, scontri con polizia
APCOM
Lanciano pietre e bombe fumogene, in sobborgo Mosca
Mosca, 29 lug. (Apcom-Nuova Europa) – Manifestazione violenta nella periferia di Mosca: ancora una volta l’amministrazione pubblica nel sobborgo di Khimki si mette in luce per la totale mancanza di rispetto nei confronti dell’ambiente. Un’intera foresta dovrebbe essere abbattuta per fare spazio al procedere dell’autostrada Mosca-San Pietroburgo e per questo centinaia di giovani si sono ribellati, lanciando pietre e bombe fumogene contro il governatore della regione circostante Mosca.
Le manifestazioni di tale violenza sono rare in Russia, dove la polizia in genere interviene molto velocemente, anche durante riunioni pacifiche. I manifestanti erano più di 500.
Anarchici e appartenenti ai movimenti anti-fascisti hanno preso di mira il sindaco di Khimki. Durante gli scontri sono stati sparati alcuni colpi, secondo le immagini trasmesse su internet e riprese dal canale televisivo russo NTV. Sui muri sono apparse le scritte: « Salvare la foresta russa! »
Russia. Scontri a Khimki, sobborgo Mosca dove l’ambiente ‘uccide’
La stampa
Manifestazione pro foresta dopo giornalisti picchiati a morte
Mosca, 29 lug. (Apcom-Nuova Europa) – Nel sobborgo più corrotto di Mosca i giornalisti vengono picchiati a morte se iniziano a ‘impicciarsi’ di difesa dell’ambiente. E il clima è talmente violento da generare l’unico scontro – dall’avvento di Putin al potere – dove i manifestanti (500) hanno la meglio sulla polizia. In una Mosca rovente per il caldo e il fumo di 42 torbiere in fiamme, si è tenuta oggi una manifestazione degli abitanti che si oppongono al disboscamento selvaggio, motivato dai primi lavori per la costruzione di un’autostrada Mosca-San Pietroburgo. Ma se la rete viaria tra le due capitali è veramente carente e obiettivamente necessita di ‘grandi opere’, i torbidi di Khimki e la malagestione di una periferia venduta alle fabbriche, proprio a ridosso di un patrimonio boschivo inestimabile, fanno pensare. La situazione è grave ormai da anni: un decesso nel 2009 è andato ad allungare ulteriormente la scia di sangue sulla stampa russa. Sergei Protazanov, redattore di un piccolo giornale locale, è morto a Khimki in seguito alle percosse subite. Stava lavorando a un’inchiesta « sui brogli delle elezioni del primo marzo » 2009 per un giornale, Grazhdanskoe Soglasie, certo non di primo piano. Ma ultimo baluardo di una stampa particolarmente critica nei confronti del potente governatore locale, Vladimir Vladimirovich Strelchenko. La pubblicazione venne sospesa. Ed era l’ultimo dei tre giornali locali di opposizione, che stavano progressivamente chiudendo, proprio in seguito a una raffica di aggressioni ai reporter. Nel mese di novembre 2008, un altro giornalista di opposizione nella stessa Khimki, Mikhail Beketov, direttore della Khimkinskaja Pravda, era stato picchiato alla periferia della capitale russa e ricoverato in ospedale con ferite alla testa e una gamba fratturata. Anche un’altra pubblicazione dell’opposizione, Grazhdanskij Forum, ha chiuso, dopo che il suo direttore venne picchiato in un agguato. Copyright APCOM (c) 2008
Fate Of Russia’s Khimki Forest Uncertain After Ecologists Attacked, Detain
RFE/RL
23.07.2010
Efforts to save the Khimki forest suffered a major blow when activists camped out to prevent its destruction were attacked by masked assailants and later arrested.
Two journalists were also detained, including a RFE/RL correspondent.
Environmental activists had set up a round-the-clock watch last week in the historic oak forest north of Moscow, part of which is slated to be replaced by an $8 billion highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Just after 5 a.m. on July 23, about 100 masked men appeared at the ecologists’ camp, threatening to « kill » them. The men, who wore white T-shirts wrapped around their heads, tore down the activists’ banners and removed the tents.
At the same time, loggers started felling trees close to the camp.
Several activists were injured while attempting to stop the felling, including a woman who was reportedly severely beaten.
The activists swiftly called the police. Yevgenya Chirikova, who spearheads the campaign against Khimki’s deforestation, said the police took a whole hour to arrive.
Protesters were attacked by men with T-shirts covering their faces. (photo courtesy of ecmo.ru)
« When the police arrived, the men had already reached our camp and were threatening to beat us. I explained that I was the mother of two young children, that I feared for my life and my safety, that dozens of people came here and I was afraid they would hurt me, » Chirikova said.
« I asked the police officers to stay and check their documents, but they refused and tried to leave. I had no other choice than to lie under their vehicle’s wheels. »
Police Arrest Journalists
About 40 riot police then turned up at the camp and detained a dozen activists, including Chirikova.
RFE/RL cameraman Yury Timofeyev and « Novaya gazeta » reporter Elena Kostyuchenko were also detained.
« Unidentified people, protected by police officers in uniform, tried to stop me from filming. They grabbed my camera and tried to switch it off, » Timofeyev said.
« I was detained while filming how these people demolished the ecologists’ camp. I was brought to the police station in Khimki and accused of obstructing traffic. »
Timofeyev said he and the other people detained spent almost an hour locked in a van before being brought to the police station. He said the police refused to open the van’s window despite the scorching heat.
An ambulance was later called for « Novaya gazeta » reporter Kostyuchenko, who fell ill at the police station. Doctors diagnosed her with a neck injury sustained during her arrest.
The detained activists and journalists were taken before a court, where they faced action for allegedly resisting arrest and obstructing traffic. Most of them have been cleared and all have been released.
The prominent environmental group Greenpeace has strongly condemned the arrests, accusing police of « siding with corrupt officials and their hired bandits. »
« We insist that the felling taking place at the Khimki forest is illegal, since neither the activists nor the police were shown logging permits, » the group’s Mikhail Krendlin told RFE/RL.
« But instead of stopping the illegal, at times extremist actions of certain individuals, the police brutally arrested the forest’s defenders, injuring some of them, » Krendlin added. « Now they are trying to shift all the blame on the activists. »
The Russian Union of Journalists also issued an angry statement calling for police to be prosecuted for illegally detaining reporters.
The Public Chamber, a state oversight body, said it was preparing an appeal urging the authorities to halt logging at the Khimki forest until all legal disputes surrounding the highway project are cleared up.
Dwindling Green Belt
Ecologists and Khimki residents have been fighting plans to build the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway for years, saying it will have a devastating effect on the local environment.
Russian authorities say the proposed route through Khimki will help ease traffic congestion by offering an alternative road to the airport.
But critics say building the highway in Khimki would deprive Moscow of yet another chunk of its fast-dwindling green belt, designed in Soviet times to contain pollution and preserve wildlife.
Russia’s Supreme Court gave the project the green light in April.
Ecologists Face Cops and Thugs
themoscowtimes.com
26 July 2010
Environmentalists trying to prevent the destruction of the Khimki forest called the police after 100 masked thugs threatened them with physical violence.
But instead of being rescued, they found themselves placed under arrest for hindering loggers from starting to work on an $8 billion highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Riot police detained 15 environmentalists and two journalists but let the unidentified masked attackers go Friday, the activists said, ending a weeklong standoff in the forest.
“When the police arrived, the men had already reached our camp and were threatening to beat us,” Yevgenia Chirikova, the leader of the activists who was among those detained, told Radio Liberty. “I explained that I was the mother of two young children, that I feared for my life and my safety, that dozens of people came here, and I was afraid they would hurt me.”
She said she tried to force the police to deal with the masked men, but they refused.
“I asked the police officers to stay and check their documents, but they refused and tried to leave,” she said.
Calls to Chirikova’s cell phone went unanswered Sunday.
The police faulted the activists, saying they had not been in danger but had broken the law by attempting to hinder contractors hired to cut down the trees.
When the police arrived at the campsite, “there was no public disturbance at the scene,” Yevgeny Gildeyev, a spokesman for the Moscow region police, said in a statement, Interfax reported.
Gildeyev said the activists ignored “lawful demands” to disperse and had to be detained by riot police.
“A few dozen ‘environmentalists’ interfered in the work of construction workers and blocked their equipment,” he said in a statement. “The employees of the private security company patrolling this site had failed to move those citizens away from the equipment.”
The detainees were taken to the Khimki district police station, The Associated Press reported. Several protesters and the two journalists were later released, and no charges against the detained activists were reported Sunday.
It was the second clash between the police and environmentalists, who managed to briefly chase away loggers when the deforestation started July 14.
The environmentalists attempted to stage a rally near the White House in downtown Moscow on Thursday, filing a petition with the government and seeking to present Prime Minster Vladimir Putin with timber from the newly felled trees.
But the rally, which had gathered about 50 people, ended up with several activists being dragged off to the local police station.
Yury Shevchuk, the rock star who openly confronted Putin about a lack of civil freedoms in Russia in May, traveled from St. Petersburg to Moscow on Friday to support the activists but did not take part in Friday’s clashes.
“I have come to at least provide some moral support for the guys, to meet them, to understand what is going on and figure out how I can help,” Shevchuk told Ekho Moskvy radio on Sunday.
The highway project has been a point of contention since the mid-2000s.
Environmentalists say the highway can be built to bypass the old oak forest and that contractors are working without proper permission and by using illegal immigrants. The environmentalists lost a lawsuit in the Supreme Court in April but still claim that the contractors cannot proceed because of paperwork violations.
Inzhservis, the company that was doing the logging work in the Khimki forest, was even taken off the project Wednesday because it failed to meet its deadline. Inzhservis is a subcontractor employed by Teplotekhnik, which got a government contract to clear the forest. Teplotekhnik has worked on the infrastructure of Hotel Ukraina in Moscow and plumbing in Moskva-City.
Alexander Semchenko, CEO of Teplotekhnik, said Thursday that the new logging contractor is Lestorg, which will do its job using machinery, not workers with chainsaws. He said the change should eliminate worries about illegal immigrants involved in the legal procedure of cutting down the trees.
anthropologie du présent 