On December 2, the "Free North" public movement held a rally on the outskirts of Arkhangelsk. About five thousand people came to the action against the transportation of Moscow garbage into the region. On the United Protest Day, residents of the Arkhangelsk Region were also supported in the Komi Republic, St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl. According to the calculations of the organizers of the United Day of Protest, in general, about 25 thousand people took part in the actions. Read more — in the report of «7x7».
In Arkhangelsk, on the platform near the Solovetsky Stone (the administration agreed on this place for the rally), there was not enough space for everyone — people stood on the sidewalks, on the park paths, in snowdrifts. In addition to posters with slogans in the ranks of the protesters, there were portraits of regional officials, heads of cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk and the governor — a “disgraceful regiment”, as it was during the rally against raising the retirement age on September 9. Throughout the rally in Arkhangelsk, there were demands from the stage and from the ranks of the protesters to dismiss Governor Igor Orlov.
Activists of the environmental movement "42" joined the protest. They put colorful tanks for residents: yellow ones for paper and cardboard, and blue ones for glass, aluminum and plastic. That way they drew attention of people to the need to engage in separate waste collection. Waste will be sent for recycling.
"We collected plastic and waste paper, will give it for recycling, and give the money to the campaign against Moscow garbage," said movement participant Nadya Inieva.
At that time, representatives of the LDPR parties, Fair Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and Yabloko promoted the separate collection of waste and the construction of waste recycling plants.
Vasiliy Golubyatnikov, a civil activist from Severodvinsk, told how to separate waste into categories and urged to do the same. According to him, sufficient conditions have been created for this purpose in Arkhangelsk, Novodvinsk and Severodvinsk: there are tanks and enterprises that could do this.
"Nothing new to build. If there is recycling, the amount of waste transported to landfills will be reduced by four times," Golubyatnikov continued under general discontent and doubts. According to him, if the current government is to resign, then a new one will take its place, and it is unlikely that it will be better. He sees the solution in recycling waste, in his separation and taking control.
The deputy of the regional assembly from the LDPR faction Igor Arsentiev called the decision of the government antisocial and antipopular and called governor for the responsibility.
"I’m not here for hype, but because my son is seven years old, and I don’t want his small motherland to be associated with a cesspool," said the deputy.
His colleague in the regional assembly, member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Leonid Taskaev also spoke out against the head of the region Igor Orlov.
The leader of the movement "New Russia" politician Nikita Isaev from Moscow also joined the rally.
"I am from Moscow that wants to pollute you. I'm from where these governors are appointed. I am just from where the entire protest, which was supposed to be this summer, was technologically suppressed. I want to thank you for being here because your authority has stopped talking to you," Isaev began his speech. He believes that dialogue with the local authorities is no longer possible and the right decision would be to dismiss it.
The resolution included requirements to terminate and not to make an agreement on the import of waste from other regions, to establish order in collecting, transporting and processing waste, to develop a bill prohibiting the transportation of waste from other regions, and for the governor — to voluntarily and immediately resign. There were also requirements to the government of Moscow and the Moscow Region: to take urgent measures for the widespread introduction of separate waste collection and to encourage recycling in their region. There was also a requirement to check the actions of companies operating at Shies station in the Lensky district, and to take measures to combat all violations of the law.
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At a press conference after the rallies, the organizers summed up the Protest Day and shared their plans.
"The rally is one of the tools. Now we need to try to communicate with the authorities in any case," said Dmitry Sekushin, coordinator of the protest day and activist of the Free North movement. According to him, the next step will be the introduction of a separate collection among citizens and the popularization of this idea. Already, activists are collaborating with environmentalists and thinking out actions to promote environmental awareness of the population.
"Work in the environmental direction is underway. It is invisible," answered Sekushin to the question of the «7x7» correspondent about why environmentalists do not speak and do not educate people at rallies. They are going to hold a referendum.
About 10 thousand people gathered in Severodvinsk. It was the most numerous action on December 2. Rally coordinator Alexander Peskov explained why this happened:
"First, people the problem affected their personal, private property, their dachas. And the second — it lasts for about five years."
In general, small cities of the region such as Plesetsk, Urdoma village, gathered about thousand of protesters. In the other settlements there are several hundreds and dozens of people. The organizers received photographs of single pickets from the villages where rallies were not planned.
According to the organizers, the authorities tried to prevent the holding of events. In Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk, urban public transport routes were reduced. Residents complained that they had to wait for the bus for 20-30 minutes. In Urdoma, at a railway crossing, the cars moved at a certain frequency, interfering with the passage of transport to the rally.
In October, a meeting of the Commission on Investment Policy and Competition Development was held. An investment project for construction at the Shies station of the Lensky district for the processing and disposal of waste, which has become a priority in the region, was presented there.
After that, several meetings and protests were held in Arkhangelsk and in the region against the construction of landfills and the transportation of waste from other Russian subjects.
At the regular session of the Arkhangelsk Regional Assembly of Deputies on November 14, the deputies in the second reading adopted amendments to the regional law “On the implementation of state powers of the Arkhangelsk region in the sphere of legal regulation of the organization and implementation of local self-government”. They allow the regional authorities to take control of changes in the category of individual land plots. Local governments will no longer be able to control land issues in their territories.
After these events, in Arkhangelsk, until October 2, single pickets near the building of the regional assembly of deputies and the building of the regional government continued almost daily.
On November 29, the Prosecutor's Office of the Arkhangelsk Region reported on its website that experts have been following the situation at Shies station since the moment the information about a possible dumping site has appeared and are monitoring it together with the Transport Prosecutor's Office. They have already initiated two cases for illegal logging (part 3 of article 260 of the Criminal Code of Russia) and two cases under part 1 of article 167 of the Criminal Code (“Intentional destruction of or damage to property”) due to arson of two tractors. Three administrative cases of violation of sanitary-epidemiological and environmental legislation are being investigated.
Karina Zabolotnaya, photo of the author, «7x7»
