Press Release, 8.04.2019

On the evening of 7 April, the court of the Lomonosovsky district of Arkhangelsk arrested Yury Chesnokov, one of the organisers of the anti-garbage rally in Arkhangelsk  and member of the Yabloko party, for three days.

The Judge closed the case of non-payment of a fine of 1,000 roubles, which was imposed on Yuri Chesnokov because he blocked with his car a way for vehicles sent to the construction of a landfill, because the deadline for payment (60 days) had not yet expired.

However, Yabloko’s activist was arrested in an administrative case on non-payment of a fine of 800 roubles for driving with an expired car insurance policy.

The activist should be released on 8 April, since the court took into account that he had already spent 48 hours in police departments awaiting consideration of the case.

According to Nikolai Rybakov, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, Yuri Chesnokov was arrested in order to prevent his participation in the protest rally on 7 April.

“This is how local authorities talk to those who resist turning their region into a garbage dump. We are examining the case and will provide all the necessary legal assistance to Yuri Chesnokov, ”Nikolai Rybakov said.

Rybakov also stressed that the Governor of the Arkhangelsk region should have been the first to go in a protest column against the importation of Moscow garbage into the landfills of the Arkhangelsk region.

“If the Governor does not support people, then he must be the first to leave his post. He must resign,” Nikolai Rybakov said.

Yuri Chesnokov was first detained by police on 2 April, when driving in his car in order to install a new set of satellite equipment in the wagon of environmental watch activists at Shies station.

On 3 April, Yury Chesnokov, member of the Regional Council of the Arkhangelsk branch of Yabloko, was released in the courtroom. The Vilegodsky District Court in Yarensk reviewed the fines protocols and declared them outside the jurisdiction, the relevant determination was sent to Arkhangelsk, where Yury Chesnokov was again detained on 6 April.

On 7 April, a rally was held in Arkhangelsk against the construction of a landfill near Shies station. Despite the fact that the regional authorities refused to give a permission for the protest action, about 3,000 people came to the square. Activists announced that the protest in Lenin Square would last for unlimited period of time and refused to leave the square, but the police broke up the people who tried to stay in the square. However, residents of the region refused to stop the environmental protest action.