Press Release, 15.07.2022

Photo: A logged area near the Savin Navolok Park, Petrozavodsk / Photo by the Karelian Yabloko Press Service

The Yabloko faction in the Petrozavodsk City Council sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Karelia, asking to conduct an inspection in connection with the cutting down of woods in Petrozavodsk. Deputies from Yabloko – Dmitry Rybakov and Olga Tuzhikova – consider the reduction of the forest area to be illegal and attribute this to urban planning activities conducting in accordance with the General Plan of Petrozavodsk Development of the 2008 version.

The deputies are also asking public prosecutor to file a protest against the Petrozavodsk City Council regarding the illegal reduction of the area of ​​urban forests and oblige the administration of the Petrozavodsk and the Petrozavodsk City Council to make changes to the General Plan of the city.

“The new version of the General Plan of Petrozavodsk, approved by the Petrozavodsk Council on 3 June, revealed a serious loss of urban forests, the most legally protected part of the green belt around the city. In the previous General Plan of 2008, their area was 3.500 hectares, and now it has decreased to 758 hectares, that is, by 4.6 times. At the same time, according to Article 116 Paragraph 3 of the Forest Code of the Russian Federation, “changes in the boundaries of lands on which urban forests are located, which may lead to a decrease in their area, are not permitted”. It is a big question how and through whose fault this happened,” Emilia Slabunova, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia and Chairperson of the Karelian branch of Yabloko, noted.

Earlier, Dmitry Rybakov, a Yabloko deputy in the Petrozavodsk City Council, raised the problem of preservation of the forest area.

“Work on preservation of urban forest area on the territory of the Petrozavodsk urban district has not been properly carried out. There was an impression and even confidence that the area of ​​the functional zone of urban forests was decreasing, which was contrary to the law (Article 116 of the Forest Code of the RF). According to the information from 25 July, 2012, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Petrozavodsk ordered via court that the administration of the Petrozavodsk urban district had to carry out forest management of urban forests. The was stated that the situation “created a threat of destruction of urban forests, endangered the population of the city, and reduced the security of critically important objects. This also created conditions for illegal disposal of land covered with forests,” deputy Dmitry Rybakov said at the Petrozavodsk City Council on 3 June.

The pro-government majority of the Council did not like the speech of the deputy from Yabloko so much that they turned off his microphone.

Now the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karelia will check the lawfulness of the decisions taken by the Petrozavodsk City Council and the actions of the administration of Petrozavodsk.

DMITRY RYBAKOV

is an ecologist, a Yabloko deputy of the City Council of Petrozavodsk, Karelia, a member of the Yabloko Bureau and a member of the Regional Council of the Yabloko branch in Karelia.

EMILIA SLABUNOVA

is member of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, Chair of Yabloko in 2015-2019. Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia. Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Honoured Teacher of Russia