Press Release, photograph, 25.03.2014

YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin and Deputy Chair of the Moscow branch of YABLOKO Irina Kopkina inspected the Northwest chord and found out that the contraction was frozen. The residents of the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki district showed the cutover square and an illegal parking space to YABLOKO’s representatives.

The construction of the chord started in 2011. YABLOKO and the local residents have been protesting against the widening of the street and construction of non-stop traffic motorways all this time.

The construction is frozen at the moment. According to the local residents, the construction of the road was stopped before the New Year. The construction sites are abandoned and turn into a rubbish heap.

Sergei Mitrokhin walked down the foundation pit and got evidence that anyone could get there. “Any child can get here, it’s dangerous,” said YABLOKO leader.

The YABLOKO party considered the construction project useless since the beginning as it won’t solve the traffic jam problem. “Now we can see that the project was not only useless but adventurous as well. Either not enough money was spent or it was stolen,” commented Sergei Mitrokhin.

YABLOKO leader promised to get through with the problem and demand from the authorities to finish the construction so that the residents could have a good road.

The square with 150 trees was cut down outside a block of flats and a paid parking space appeared instead.  The local residents and YABLOKO’s activist plan to conduct a cleaning day on April 15 to plant new trees and achieve the change of the paid parking space into municipal and free.