Residents of Volokolamsk have achieved closure of the Yadrovo landfill. Moscow waste was transported to the Yaroslavl region. On April 18, Yaroslavl citizens held an unauthorized protest rally. Correspondent of «7x7» visited the event.
Background of the conflict
In early April, Communists found out that the Yaroslavl landfills started to receive Moscow waste after citizens of the Moscow region blocked roads to landfills. On April 11, governors' assistants denied this. They stated that activists had to hand over garbage trucks to the police to file protocols. They promised to work out an agreement with the Moscow government on accepting the waste of the capital for 500 million rubles. Officials decided to take 200,000 tons of garbage from Moscow annually (about 270 thousand tons are transported to the Yaroslavl landfill Skolkovo). The leader of the Yaroslavl Communists Alexander Vorobyov appointed a rally against the Moscow waste on April 18, but the city authorities did not agree on the site in the center of the city. The activists distributed leaflets on the streets a few days before the rally, wearing gas masks to draw attention. The headquarters of Navalny and regional committee of the Communist Party started collecting signatures against accepting the waste. More than 38 thousand people signed under the online petition for a legislative ban on the transportation of garbage into the Yaroslavl region from other regions.
On the morning of April 18, the city's youth policy department organized a waste paper collection on the same square. They installed the loudspeakers and turned on the music.
Beginning of the rally
The police did not allow the demonstrators to use sound amplifiers. The organizers of the action limited themselves to the loudspeaker. Music of waste paper collectors drowned out the speakers, and several elderly women demanded to turn off the music. But they were ignored and started to chant: "Traitors!" The police had to intervene and take the tent under guard, but the loudspeakers were turned off.
The organizer of the rally, Alexander Vorobyov, said that he was threatened with administrative responsibility. But he was not afraid. A warning was given to activists of Navalny’s headquarters. Many brought scrap paper. The activist Kirill Shtorm had a full backpack, but the collectors had already completed their work.
Requirements of the protesters
Alexander Vorobyov demanded:
1. To stop the transportation of waste into the Yaroslavl landfills;
2. To develop additional security measures to expand the environmental safety of existing landfills;
3. To build waste-processing enterprises and establish separate collection of waste;
4. To solve the problem with the burial of "green oils" on the territory of the former soot factory;
5. To maintain constant environmental monitoring.
At the rally, Communists announced the creation of the public movement "Yaroslavl People's Defense Committee", which would resist the authorities' attempts to transport waste into the Yaroslavl region.
"We have to continue fighting"
The former municipal deputy Anton Golitsyn warned the protesters:
"Unfortunately, no one but us can stop the government today. They are afraid of only one thing — publicity. One rally is clearly not enough. Therefore, anyone who is really interested in protecting our region from the Moscow garbage should prepare for a long struggle: on rallies, in social networks, and in some other places. I'm sure by now, thinking of billions that they will earn at the disposal of Moscow garbage here, on the turning of our city into dump, they will stop at nothing. We have to continue fighting."
One of the speakers said that he was ready to put his car on the way of Moscow garbage trucks. Another suggested bringing garbage to the regional administration, in case the authorities do not listen to the resident.
Civil activist Elena Linetskaya urged the assembled to sort out the garbage on their own and give it to the monthly action "Ecomobile".
Resident of the village near Skolkovo had collected about 500 signatures under the petition and handed it to Vorobyov.
Activist from Kostroma Tatiana Pavlova joined the rally. She said she came out with pickets to Kostroma administration and began to collect signatures against the Moscow waste. According to her, a new landfill is being built under Kostroma.
On April 11, Yaroslavl residents already protested against Moscow waste in front of the regional government.
Daniil Kuznetsov, photo by Alexander Stepanov, «7x7»