The building of highway through the Khimki forest was resumed since 12 of April

From April 12, 2011 the builders of the commercial highway through the Khimki forest started to clean out the glade to continue building process.
So far the building activity is concentrated in the small forested area near Sheremetyevo airport, outside the Khimki forest. Two harvesters were delivered to the building zone. One forwarder is now transporting logs, which were left over after the august felling of the last year.

About 50 journalists (a significant number even for Moscow) were brought to the construction zone to see the work of the harvester. No public representatives or other stakeholders were informed about the meeting. This was apparently done to hide the social problems around the Khimki forest or to declare that all the problems were solved.
In spite of lack of information the Khimki forest activists found the way to present an alternative opinion to the journalist group. Although they hade to chase the bus with mass media representatives.
The work of machines in the forest was stopped. However the possibility of resuming the felling process along the projected highway line (including the Khimki forest) is still remaining.

In the parts of the planned highway near the roads the building process is not on, but access in the area is restricted by security guys.

In the text below we remind why preservation of the Khimki forest is necessary and why rejection of the project is extremely important for Moscow and surroundings as well as for Russia in general.

1. Khimki forest is one of the most valuable natural forests within the Moscow agglomeration (along with Losiny ostrov, which has status of national park). It is an essential element of the natural environment, the nearest available forest for approximately one million residents of Moscow and Moscow area.

2. As far as alternative variants of the highway exist (officially exist two variants, and really - eleven) there was no validly way to withdraw the land from the forest park according to current law. Continued construction of the road on the chosen by the Government variant would mean that our legislation is in reality does not work (as, indeed, no surprise), and parks and green areas throughout the country vulnerable to the arbitrariness of bureaucrats.

3. Interaction between authorities and civil society in the implementation of this project is accompanied by massive attacks on life and health of civil society activists, intimidation, attempts to influence through threating the children. If the actions of authorities at all levels to implement this project will be deemed to be correct, crimes against civil society activists who protects natural areas will be massive and widespread.

4. Version of strip line selected by the Government, in consideration of available alternatives, clearly shows that the forest is the most not-valuable and useless category of land for the state, which is used for the implementation of infrastructure and other projects first of all. If this variant is found to be correct, the destiny of forests in densely populated regions of Russia will be determined and very unenviable.

So, the protecting of Khimki forest should become an impotant matter not only for environmentalists and local residents, but also for all forest workers of our country. If we can not defend Khimki forest it is immediately reflected on all the remaining forests, at least in densely populated areas, where land is enough high valuable.