Residents of Yekaterinburg put up portraits of Putin in order to save the forest

Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked to protect a relic forest in Yekaterinburg. It was decided to cut it down for the construction of an elite residential complex. To protect the trees, activists have already hung portraits of the head of state on them.

Member of the Board of the Union of Architects of Russia Andrey Rudakov said URA.RUthat the ship forest is about 250 years old. Many animals live in it, there is a children’s camp and a clinic for drug addicts.

“The territory has always belonged to urban forests, and was not subject to development. But about five years ago, by a court decision, for some reason this land was excluded from the category of forests and given to developers,” the activist said.

The architect explained that a construction company liked the site and decided to build a complex there. There are many empty territories around, but businessmen are interested in this one. Indeed, in the forest zone, premium housing is much more expensive than in the wastelands.

Activists tried to get justice from local authorities. They were forwarded from instance to instance. It turned out that cutting down the relict forest is included in the General Plan for the development of Yekaterinburg.

Andrei Rudakov called the destruction of trees a terrible mistake that could lead to an environmental disaster. Therefore, the activists decided to complain about the injustice personally to Putin.

The URA.RU publication asked for comments the Palniks Production and Commercial Company, the Department of Information Policy and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Sverdlovsk Region. No responses have been received at the time of publication.

Read also: “Illegal deforestation caused the Tomsk region damage of almost 50 million rubles”