Press release, 06.06.2016

Member of YABLOKO Federal Political Committee and Chair of the Moscow party branch Sergei Mitrokhin arrived at the Torfyanka park in northeastern Moscow to support the local resident, who are protesting against the illegal attempts to construct an Orthodox church in the territory of the park.

On 18 June it will be a year since the activists of the Sorok Sorokov Orthodox movement tried to start the construction of the church – they put a fence around the territory and prepared a building site to lay the foundation. However, the local residents did not allow them to start the construction and organised a twenty-four-hour duty in the park.

The local residents have been constantly insulted and attacked by the representatives of the Sorok Sorokov movement within this year. The aggressively disposed young men justified their actions by the result of the public hearing which had taken place in 2012. But after a prosecutor’s investigation, which was carried out upon the request of Moscow YABLOKO, it turned out that the hearing was conducted with violations of the law.

As a result, the Moscow authorities made a decision to consider another place for the construction and forwarded an additional agreement on termination of the land rental contract to the Moscow Eparchy. However, the Eparchy has not reported whether the agreement was signed or not for several months and the supporters of the construction do not leave the territory of the park.

The local residents continue their duty in the park.