FSB frontier service arrests ecologists in Sochi National Park

Today, frontier guards of the Russian FSB have detained and searched a group of ecologists who were examining and inspecting the Olympic construction of the combined road Adler-Krasnaya Polyana for breaking the frontier regime. This was reported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

According to the Fund, the detention and arrest took place in the vicinity of the Veselov Forestry of the Sochi National Park, during the action of the Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) "Russian Railways" (RRWs) of planting relic boxtrees. The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that earlier ecologists repeatedly protested against felling Red Book trees in the Olympic construction zone.

"In area of Akhshtyr village, Andrei Rudomakha, coordinator of the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus, scientist Suren Gazaryan, a member of the Watch Board, Professor Valery Akatov, teacher of the Maikop State Technological University, Alik Le, a resident of Adler and a member of the Watch, and German journalist Utta Bluma were detained and arrested by the frontier service of the FSB. The detainees were presented charges of breaching the frontier regime," Igor Chestin, representative of the WWF in Russia, has reported.

He said that "in this case we see an example of selective application of legislation against activists and scientists who try to save the unique zone. I'm more than sure that the majority of persons present there had no proper permits. Moreover, creation of a frontier zone in the area of preparing for the Olympiad is contrary to the very idea of the Olympic movement," the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

The OJSC RRWs is planting boxtrees seedlings under the action "Let's save nature for descendants". It is planned to plant 6800 of Colchis boxtree seedlings in the territory of the Sochi National Park. The sum spent by railwaymen to buy rare trees made 800 thousand roubles.

However, Andrei Rudomakha, head of the Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus, told the "Kasparov.Ru" that the action of the RRWs of replanting boxtrees from the area of the construction of the combined railway and motor road Adler-Krasnaya Polyana was just a PR campaign.

He said that ecologists went to personally observe the planting of 6860 nursery boxtrees in the area of the Dzykhrin Water Body; however, they believe that "the RRWs hold an action to improve its image, not to compensate the damage caused to the environment."

According to the official statement of the railway monopoly, the nursery trees are planted, because "during construction of the combined road Adler-Krasnaya Polyana a number of trees were cut away."

Ecologists could not find out where these 6860 seedlings were received from. According to their data, not a single nursery in Sochi has this amount. The RRWs have stated that they received trees from the Sochi National Park, but there this information was not confirmed.

Meanwhile, the activists of the Watch held monitoring on October 10 and 11 in the road construction zone. In the 2nd quarter of the Veselov Forestry of the Sochi National Park, in the unique boxtree massif to the south of the Glubokiy Yar Gorge, they saw workers who were digging out young boxtrees in great quantity. In the opinion of ecologists, these were those seedlings, allegedly bought for 800 thousand roubles for holding the action and "presented as nursery trees by the National Park."

"The RRWs are going 'to compensate' the damage from their earlier illegal felling of Red Book trees by additional digging out the survived trees from their natural environment, thus, by additional damage," runs the press release of the Ecological Watch. "The seedlings for the replanting are dug out throughout the whole boxtree massif, not only from the sections that the railwaymen plan to destroy at building the route and the southern portal of the tunnel for the combined road."

Let us note here that Dmitri Kozak, Vice-Premier of Russian government, promised, when meeting ecologists on September 28, to "freeze" further felling of boxtrees.