Russian Environmental Activist Attacked

KHIMKI, Russia — An activist of the Defenders of the Khimki Forest movement has been attacked and beaten, RFE/RL’s Russian Service reports.

Sergei Udaltsov, coordinator of the opposition Left Front movement, told RFE/RL that several people beat Aleksei Belykh when he and other activists went to the Khimki Forest near the town of Starbeyevo after they learned that freshly felled trees were found there.

Belykh sustained numerous bruises and facial injures. His current state is reported as satisfactory.

The Defenders of the Khimki Forest movement has been actively protesting Moscow Oblast authorities’ plans to construct a new highway connecting Moscow with St. Petersburg through the massive forest near the town of Khimki.

Read more in Russian here

Leave a comment