Press Release, June 4, 2013
Today YABLOKO’s activists and YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin cleaned a part of Timiryazevsky park, which is situated in the north of Moscow. The action was held within the Environment Week, announced by YABLOKO in the run-up to the World environment day celebrated on June 5.

YABLOKO’a municipal deputies and the residents took part in the action. Russian State Agrarian University also supported the action. Eugenia Chirikova, a famous ecologist and leader of Defenders of Khimki Forest movement arrived to help.
The cleaning of the park took place at the requests of Koptevo district’s residents, who often complain to the YABLOKO about the improper cleaning of the park.
It took the activists 2 hours to clean a large part of the park. The peculiarity of the action was sorting of garbage. The activists sorted the garbage into plastic, glass, organic waste and so on.
“Unfortunately Moscow government and ecological departments do not care for the cleaning of the park. The directorate of the park evidently does not work: there is plenty of garbage in the park. The day before the World Environment day we decided to remind our authorities that garbage in parks should be cleaned. And it is desirable to sort garbage”, commented Sergei Mitrokhin.
He also reminded that YABLOKO have been dealing with the issues of environment protection and protection of parks in Moscow for a long time. This way YABLOKO have opened the access to the first historic beach in Serebryany bor (Moscow) recently.
The residents came up to the activists during the cleaning inquiring what was going on and some of them joined the activists. Lots of people came with their children.
“My daughters and I picked up a huge bag of garbage in Timiryazevsky forest. Thanks to the movement against the North-East Chord in Moscow and the YABLOKO for this wonderful cleaning day!” posted Eugenia Chirikova on Twitter.
The activists picked up lots of glass and plastic bottles. Scraps of food and even charcoal grills were found in the places where people cooked shish kebabs. Syringes together with needles and contraceptive remedies became a large part of the garbage.
Galina Mikhaleva, First Deputy Chair of Moscow YABLOKO, concluded that not only the authorities but also the residents are to blame for the huge amounts of garbage in the park.
“We understood that, on the one hand, the authorities do not take measures to clean the park and, on the other hand, the citizens do not care to clear up after themselves. By no means the Department of Natural Resources Management and Environmental Protection should be responsible for cleaning the park, but the citizens should also look after themselves not to have so much garbage in the park”, noted Galina Mikhaleva.
YABLOKO party will continue to take care of Moscow’s parks.

Sergei Mitrokhin, chair of YABLOKO