Who is in the Elk, who is for firewood – Newspaper Kommersant No. 4 (7449) of 01/12/2023

In the Losiny Ostrov National Park (Moscow), another conflict is flaring up around the felling of trees and the preparation of a specially protected area for a construction site. The logging work on a 4-hectare site caused indignation among local residents. The deputies of the Moscow City Duma and the State Duma, as well as members of the RF OP, who have joined in, are unsuccessfully trying to find out who and for what purpose is clearing the place for future construction. There were versions that a new housing complex or an object of the Ministry of Defense could appear here. The military department, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the administration of the Losiny Ostrov national park did not respond to Kommersant’s requests. The capital’s construction department made it clear that the facility had nothing to do with road construction and the renovation program.

In early January, on the territory of the Losiny Ostrov National Park, construction equipment began cutting down trees and preparing the construction site. This was announced on social networks by Moscow City Duma deputy Mikhail Timonov (SRZP). On January 1, Mr. Timonov’s assistant visited the 2nd Belokamenny passage near the Losiny Ostrov residential complex, where, as local residents complained, felling work was underway. “Alexey Vasiliev, having convinced himself of the validity of the signal, called the police,” said Mikhail Timonov. “Which confirmed to him that the work was being carried out officially. But what kind of work is this, who is the customer, why this is happening on the land of the Losiny Ostrov National Park, and what urgent need made it necessary to start work on New Year’s Eve, she did not answer. Local residents say that allegedly the workers referred to the “needs of the army.”

Anton Khlynov, a member of the commission on environmental well-being at the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, told Kommersant that construction equipment had cleared about 4 hectares of a specially protected area. The workers involved, according to the ecologist, reported “contradictory information”: “Some say that this is some kind of special facility, others that it is a residential complex.” “Before the creation of the national park, there was an industrial zone here,” says Mr. Khlynov. for use by the Federal State Budgetary Institution “National Park “Losiny Ostrov””. Environmental legislation allows such work to be carried out in national parks only in a number of cases, Mr. Khlynov recalled. For example, if they are conducted for the needs of the protected area itself or for the settlements that are located on its territory (in this case, it is Moscow). “Also, for such works, if they are related to capital construction and are not related to the objects of the main infrastructure, it is necessary to carry out a state environmental review,” he continues. capital construction – also a building permit received from this department. According to him, if this was not done, and the clearing is not carried out for the needs of the national park or the city, and also not to ensure the functioning of existing facilities for other purposes within the boundaries of the national park, the work is hardly legal. If approvals have been obtained, it is necessary to check how legally they were issued, the ecologist says.

State Duma Deputy Sergei Obukhov (KPRF) sent a request to the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Natural Resources with a request to provide relevant information. “At the moment, residents do not have data that the work has been coordinated with these institutions, as well as information about what is planned to be built on the site being built up,” he explained.

It should be noted that this is not the first conflict around the development of Losiny Ostrov. So, since 2013, the project of laying an understudy of the Shchelkovo highway here has been discussed. In March 2019, the then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in this regard, instructed the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Natural Resources to work out the issue of changing the boundaries of the national park. However, the departments responded that, under current legislation, this “is not possible.” In 2019, Kommersant spoke in detail about the scandal with the construction of the Fairy Forest residential complex, which began to be built in the buffer of a protected area. In 2021, environmentalists complained about the illegality of the construction of a section of the North-Eastern Expressway – several sections of the protected area, through which it should pass according to the USRN, suddenly ceased to be part of Losiny Ostrov (see “Kommersant” dated March 3, 2021). However, the plot was still built.

The management of the Losiny Ostrov National Park forwarded to Kommersant with requests to comment on the situation to the Ministry of Natural Resources. The environmental department did not respond.

In the capital’s construction department, “Kommersant” made it clear that this was not their object, specifying that it had nothing to do with road construction and houses being built under the renovation program. Who exactly is clearing the construction site, the interlocutor in the department found it difficult to say, suggesting that we can talk about the object of the Ministry of Defense or commercial construction. The Moscow Department of Natural Resources did not respond to Kommersant’s request about who is working on this site, whether there are appropriate permits, including logging tickets.

The Ministry of Defense, where Kommersant turned for clarification, did not respond to a request.

Any activity that can damage environmental components and cultural and historical objects is prohibited on the territory of the national park, says Yevgeny Zharov, managing partner of Zharov Group. The construction of roads and other linear facilities, the passage and parking of vehicles, the creation of sites for the accumulation of waste, and the plowing of land are prohibited there. Mr. Zharov notes that for violation of the rules for the use of natural resources in specially protected natural areas, administrative liability has been established in the form of a fine (Article 8.39 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). For legal entities, its size ranges from 300 thousand to 500 thousand rubles. “In case of causing significant damage to specially protected areas, for example, in the event of the destruction of individual complexes and natural monuments, the deterioration of their condition, the extraction of animals inhabiting these territories, criminal liability under Art. 262 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the regime of specially protected natural areas and natural objects),” says Evgeny Zharov.

Anna Vasilyeva, Alexander Voronov