Activist Gennadi Rodin was arrested in Khimki just for wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Russia supports  Khimki Forest!”

One of the forest defenders, Mikhail Matveyev, went to the inner part of the wood not far from the clearing to contact a group of activists. Two masked men attacked him. They knocked him to the ground and beat him, injuring several ribs, and took away the flash card and batteries from his camera. When the men left him , Mikhail went to the policemen at the post near the local road. The policemen refused to inspect the woods in search of the attackers or even to take a written complaint from Mikhail. Later they arrested him for alleged ‘disobedience to policemen’. The same day, another environmental activist Alexandr Glibin once again saw a group of men in masks who were accompanied by policemen and uniformed security guards, hired by PO Teplotekhnik.

The same evening riot police once again attacked the tent camp of forest defenders (now situated in another place). Fifteen persons were arrested. Six of them – 5 journalists and an MP's aide – were soon freed. The other 9 forest defenders had to spend the following night and morning in stuffy cells. Before pushing them into the cells, the policemen searched environmentalists as if they were dangerous criminals. Evgenia Chirikova and Yelena Maximova were undressed during the search. Personal items belonging to the arrested people, including cellular phones, were taken away. Evgenia Chirikova requested them to let her to go home, because her two young children (her daughters aged 9 and 4 years) were in her flat alone, but the policemen, led by Major Shkuratov, refused to let her leave. Later Khimki policemen gave false testimonies in the court, trying to secure the conviction of environmental activists. Nevertheless, almost all the activists (including Evgenia) were not found guilty.

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Lawyers from Greenpeace together with activists visited the office of PO Teplotekhnik. No document allowing the clearing of the forest was provided to them. Nevertheless, trees were still cut down.

Near the clearing, environmental activist Dionys Georgis was attacked by tattoo-covered thugs with Nazi insignia. They knocked him to the ground and repeatedly kicked him. Member of Russian Parliament (State Duma) Anton Belyakov was among the witnesses of this incident. Policemen were also on the scene and at the request of the MP they were forced to detain the attackers. However, there was no further investigation. Apparently the policemen freed the attackers as soon as possible after the witnesses were out of sight.
Approximately at the same time more beatings were reported. For example, activist Yury Petin was not only beaten, but apparently kidnapped for interrogation by unknown thugs near the clearing. According to Alexei Grigor’iev's testimony, the thugs harassed a girl who attempted to find the way to the environmentalists’camp. They pretended they were going to run over her in a SUV car, and then stopped at the last moment. They also stopped Alexei and took the flash-card from his camera.

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At 5 a.m. tens of unknown men suddenly attacked the tent camp of the forest defenders. The attackers had masks and tattoos, some were wearing Nazi symbols. They threatened and insulted activists , and physically attacked those who dared to approach the tree clearing, which was resumed immediately after arrival of the men. Most witnesses claimed that the men resembled football fans belonging to ultra-right groups. Later the head of PO Teplotekhnik Mr. Semchenko publicly admitted that these thugs had been specially hired by him to provoke disorder and give the police a pretext for arrests of activists. Police condoned the attackers by refusing to find out who they  were, and the police even tried to escape the scene. To prevent a bloodbath, the activists were forced to block the police car from leaving with their own bodies – which was then held against them. Then police re-enforcement arrived – and arrested 7 defenders of the forest and 2 journalists. Journalist Yelena Kostyuchenko, 23, from Novaya Gazeta newspaper received such a strong blow on her neck during this arrest that doctors later found displacement of neck vertebra and injury of neck ligaments. Another young woman Margarita Popova, the mother of a year-and-half-old child, was caught by her hair and dragged to the police van. She wept from pain. On the contrary, no one of the masked thugs was arrested, and none of them have been identified. The felling of trees was immediately resumed after the arrest of the activists. The police committed many other violations : they refused to introduce themselves or specify any reason for the detention. Charges were then falsified in the police station later. 

The provocation of July 23 had some far-reaching consequences (perhaps not fully calculated by its masterminds). On July 28 several hundred antifascists attacked the Administration of Khimki, apparently outraged by the Neo-Nazi involvement in the project. No people were injured, and the building was damaged only slightly (broken windows, slogans painted on the walls). Nevertheless, this case was used to justify repression against activists, including those who were clearly not present at the antifascists’ action (see below). 

In the evening, activist Oleg Prokopich was severely beaten by unidentified bandits when he attempted to approach the clearing.

Khimki Forest nazi, July 23, 2010

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Police arrested some activists who approached the House of the Government in Moscow with a peaceful flash mob action as well as to submit a petition demanding a stop to the clearing of the forest.

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In a clearing, near the environmentalists’ tent camp, an unknown man attacked Evgenia Chirikova, the leader of the Movement  to Defend Khimki Forest. He hit her first, and knocked her mobile phone out of her hand. Then he sat in his off-road car and tried to hit  Evgenia with the car bumper. After this incident Evgenia wrote a complaint to the police. As far as it is known, the identity of the attacker was soon identified: his name is Boris Velchenko. However, police have not opened a criminal case against him.

Felling of trees was discovered by activists. The workers failed to show any permits for the work. Activists established a tent camp in the forest to prevent the illegal works from being continued. Security guards tried to attack activists.

A series of cases of violence against peaceful protesters and of open violation of law has take place since July 2010 when an attempt was made to clear Khimki forest for construction of the Moscow – St. Petersburg toll motorway.

The main perpetrator of the project at this stage was PO Teplotekhnik – a company which was hired by State company FGU Dorogi Rossii to clear the land from vegetation for further construction works. It was planned that, after Teplotekhnik, further works would be carried out by NWCC Ltd – the concessioner of the project.  A  share in NWCC company is owned by French company Vinci,  and the rest is owned by Russian shareholders (one of them is the company N-Trans and the other is the close friend of Putin Arkadi Rotenberg) – both  with strong ties to top state officials.