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Exiled Environmental Activist Speaks Of 'Impossibility' Of Protest I

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  • Exiled Environmental Activist Speaks Of 'Impossibility' Of Protest I

    EXILED ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST SPEAKS OF 'IMPOSSIBILITY' OF PROTEST IN RUSSIA

    Criticising environmental and state corruption leads to threats and
    intimidation, says Suren Gazaryan

    John Vidal theguardian.com, Monday 28 April 2014 07.00 BST

    Suren Gazaryan of the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus looks at
    waste close to the 2014 Sochi construction site. Photograph: Mikhail
    Mordasov/AFP/Getty Images

    Criticising Russian state projects and the destruction of the
    environment leads to police intimidation, trumped up criminal charges
    and prison, says a green activist forced to seek political asylum
    in western Europe after protesting against a luxurious mansion being
    allegedly built for Vladimir Putin and the destruction of protected
    wilderness for the winter Olympic games in Sochi.

    "It has become almost impossible now to object to grand projects
    which have the authorities behind them. People are threatened and
    intimidated," says zoologist Suren Gazaryan, who on Monday won a
    $175,000 prize in the Goldman awards, the equivalent of a "green
    Oscar". He is now in Germany after receiving political asylum in
    Estonia.

    Gazaryan, with other members of Russian ecological group Environmental
    Watch on North Caucasus group (EWNC), has been a leading critic of
    the developments along the Black Sea coast and of the corruption
    surrounding the Olympics. In the runup to the Sochi games last year,
    the group issued photographs of the damage created by new roads and
    building in the national park and the Caucasus reserve. "There has
    been massive destruction of natural landscapes," he says.

    Rubbish dumped near the Olympic Park in the Russian Black Sea resort
    of Sochi. Photograph: Mikhail Mordasov/AFP/Getty Images

    Earlier this year, the group published a report on the environmental
    impact of the games, citing the destructive impact of development
    in protected areas, the degradation of habitats for rare animals and
    plants, air and water pollution and the loss of Sochi's potential as
    a health resort.

    Gazaryan, a Russian bat expert, received a three-year conditional
    sentence for organising a rally against the allegedly illegal seizure
    of forest land for the mansion and was later charged with damaging
    a construction site. "My lawyers advised me that because I was on
    probation I would automatically be sent to prison. I did not want to
    lose three years of my life in jail."

    However, his colleague, geologist Yevgeny Vitishko, was sentenced to
    three years in a penal colony in February and EWNC has effectively been
    closed down, with its bank accounts frozen. Last year it was ordered to
    register as a foreign "agent" and the group's offices were raided by
    "Centre E", the government department set up to combat extremism and
    terrorism. Six members were briefly imprisoned and the group was told
    not to publish its report on Sochi-related environmental damage so as
    "not to harm the country".

    "When the group refused, inspectors said they would examine its
    computers for unlicenced software and look into the group's email
    account. The inspectors threatened to fine the organisation if anyone
    tried to hinder them from examining the computers and emails," said
    a Moscow-based spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch. "The authorities
    were determined to silence Gazaryan and Vitishko because they refuse
    to be deterred from speaking out on environmental and state corruption
    issues."

    "Amnesty International believes that Vitishko is a prisoner of
    conscience. The authorities have increasingly harassed several members
    of the NGO in the runup to the games, with repeated arrests and brief
    detentions, personal searches, questioning of activists themselves
    and of their close relatives by police, and unofficial warnings from
    police and security officials to abstain from protesting during the
    Sochi Olympics," said an Amnesty spokesman.

    "If you want to be assertive in Russia you have to be careful. You
    cannot appeal against official projects. The situation is very
    difficult. All criticism is suppressed. There can be no opposition
    to the state. Only a very few articles appear in the media," said
    Gazaryan.

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/28/russia-environmental-protest-suren-gazaryan

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