On the day of the arbitration on the Technopark Company's writ of appeal, more than 10 police cars left in the direction of the Shies station in Arkhangelsk Oblast. This was reported by the Vesti s Shiesa (‘News from Shies’) Community on vk.com in the morning of February 4. The police blocked the entry roads to the station and detained activist Andrei Banshchik, and the camp became unavailable. Activist Anna Shekalova told 7x7 about it.
According to her, she learned in the morning of February 4 that more than 10 police cars had left in the direction of the Shies station. Law enforcement authorities detained and took activist Andrei Banshchik, who was on duty at the Gora (‘Mountain’) post, away without explanation. After that, the activists there became unavailable.
Shekalova suggested that the actions of the police could be connected to the fact that the court was considering the writ of appeall of the Technopark Company, which was trying to challenge the court's decision to demolish the buildings at the station, in the afternoon of February 4. According to her, some activists rejoiced at the victory at Shies and the beginning of the reclamation of the territory too early. In January, the police already visited them and demanded that they raise the camp. The activists refused to do that.
“Is it victory indeed if the police come and take an activist away? And this is happening on the day of the court on the demolition of the Technopark’s buildings. They are fighting for these buildings, although everyone claims that there will be no landfill there. But why fight then? It means they do not want to leave; they want to do something. They do not want us to monitor the reclamation and our camp to be there. People from different cities and towns continue going to Shies to be 99 percent sure that there will be no landfill or waste incineration plant. Everyone understands that a lot of money has already been „poured“ into the project,” Shekalova said.
Activist Evgeny Tropin has also published an appeal on YouTube, in which he reported that the police had set up roadblocks a few kilometers before Shies - from the villages of Madmas, Urdoma of the Komi Republic and from the village of Tyva in Arkhangelsk Oblast.
“They did not let anyone through and checked papers,” he said.
According to him, it became known just after 8AM that the police had headed to Shies.
“It is now unclear, unknown what is happening there. We are waiting for any news,” Tropin said.
The Technopark Company suggested back in December 2020 that activists move their tents outside the site. The developer said on its website that the tent camp prevented starting works on cleaning the territory of 15 hectares from soil piles. The company referred to an agreement reached by its representatives, the regional government, and the administration of the village of Urdoma. The activists stated they knew nothing about this agreement and also called the reclamation “barbaric”.
The construction of a landfill for the import of waste from Moscow began at station Shies on the border of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic in the summer of 2018 without permits. Residents of the region and the neighboring Komi Republic began protesting, and activists set up a tent camp near the construction site of the landfill and organized a 24-hour duty there. In December 2019, it became known that Moscow had not included Shies in its territorial waste management scheme for the next 10 years. In October 2020, Technopark announced the termination of the landfill construction at Shies and promised to reclaim the territory by the summer of 2021.