Clearing forests for a new school in Moscow has caused strong protests from local residents. It's not just harmful to nature, but may also be an illegal takeover.
The city and Troitsk officials are managing forest lands that are federally owned. This means any actions regarding these lands, like transferring them for development or issuing logging permits, may not be in line with the law. Read more about how Sergei Sobyanin's subordinates are trying to bypass Russian laws in the PASMI material.
Local residents and eco-activists have been protesting the city administration's decision to build a school for 2,100 students and a kindergarten for 350 students in Troitsk, Novomoskovsk. They are concerned about the shortage of educational institutions, but they oppose the construction in the current location. They have even set up a camp and blocked access roads, but the construction continues. Security measures have been increased, resulting in clashes with protesters.
Troitsk residents are not against the construction of the school, but they question the need to cut down the Trinity Forest for it. They believe there are other suitable locations for the school. They are also worried about the possibility of unchecked development of forest lands. A representative of the regional public association 'Right? Yes!', Anton Mogilnikov, explained that Moscow authorities do not have the right to dispose of the lands for construction.
human intervention in the forest
After Moscow's expansion by around 1.5 thousand square kilometers of the Moscow region, the city government faced the challenge of developing federally owned lands. The expansion aimed to develop new territories.
When land plots are included within a settlement, their categorization changes, but not their ownership rights. Forests become urban forests, but they are still protected by federal law. The attempt by the Moscow government to classify lands, which were part of the forest fund before the expansion, as part of Moscow's green fund, does not remove federal ownership, as explained by an interlocutor in PASMI.
And one of the specific instances of this serious issue with the leadership of Sergei Sobyanin was the situation in Novomoskovsk Troitsk, where the Trinity Forest actually consists of sections 53, 54, and 57 of the former Malinsky forestry, which falls under federal property status according to the Forest Code of the Russian Federation.
Cadastral fraud
“Meanwhile, Moscow officials are not bothered by legal constraints on the use of these lands. The subordinates of Sergei Sobyanin opted not to follow standard legal procedures for land transfer and instead engaged in hostile takeover, providing the contractor with false and forged documents,” stated Anton Mogilnikov.
According to him, unknown individuals unlawfully registered four plots within the boundaries of federal forest lands. These include a plot with cadastral number 50:54:0010103:103, permitted for use as an administrative office building and a shopping complex with a hotel, plots 77:19:0010103:1149 and 77:19:0010103:1477 – designated for the construction of educational institutions, and a plot 77:19:0010103:1478 permitted for use as a road network.
“The specified federal property has not been transferred to anyone since 2006, and the design, construction, and other use of the land outside the guidelines of the Forest Code have not been approved. Deliberately misleading information was also entered into the state cadastre regarding access to land plots and the absence of rights to these plots,” highlighted Anton Mogilnikov.
Landless Contractor
Furthermore, he believes that the Department for the Development of New Territories of the City of Moscow violated the law by entering into government contracts for the construction of a school and a kindergarten on federal forest lands, with values of 3,687 million rubles and almost 87 million rubles, respectively.
The contractor, LLC GK SMU-555, does not have the legally binding right to freely use the land plots allocated for construction, noted the public figure.
Oksana Mukhovnikova and Dmitry Romanov, Deputy Heads of the Department for Registration of Property Relations of the Department of City Property of the City of Moscow, signed the corresponding agreements with another organization, LLC Academproekt, which is not involved in construction.
“This directly goes against the requirements of articles 24 and 39.10 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation and should be classified as an abuse of power,” emphasized Anton Mogilnikov.
He also pointed out that contracts with Academproekt LLC were signed for a duration of 11 months and 28 days: “This period is obviously stipulated to avoid formal registration, which includes a legal examination revealing the falsification and forgery.”
As a result, the head of the city district of Troitsk, Vladimir Dudochkin, also committed a violation by issuing permits for the construction of a school and a kindergarten based on these illegal documents – surprisingly, not to the official contractor SMU-555, but to the same Academproekt.
At the same time, Anton Mogilnikov believes Dudochkin’s actions may also be considered as misusing budget funds, as he previously initiated and conducted design work on federally owned forest lands, obviously at the expense of the local budget.
Cutting carte blanche
The list of illegal actions put together by activists doesn't stop there. Nikolay Ruppel, deputy head of the administration of the city district of Troitsk, issued an order for earthworks to SMU-555 LLC without providing legal documents for the land and without reference to specific land plots.
Also, without an exact reference, but only at the conditional address of the object, Yulia Kudryashova, Deputy Head of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of Moscow, issued logging tickets to Academproekt LLC for cutting down more than 4 thousand trees and shrubs.
“These solutions actually allow the contractor to cut wood and excavate anywhere along Oktyabrsky Prospekt in the city of Troitsk, transport and make deals with wood without control,” Anton Mogilnikov noted.
He pointed out that felled wood is not counted as required by federal law. Meanwhile, the damage already caused to the forest, based on the estimated cost of wood alone, is at least 10-15 million rubles, and the total losses due to the destruction of forests on more than 5 hectares are not subject to primary assessment.
Manual police
According to a source at the editorial office, he repeatedly sent reports about violations to the inter-municipal department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “Troitsky” and even brought them up directly to the head of the department, Lieutenant Colonel Artur Ruzin, when he visited the site of the controversial construction. “I was told that until there is political will, deforestation will continue,” said Anton Mogilnikov.
He presented all his arguments about the illegality of the events in a statement sent to the Moscow prosecutor’s office, the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow, as well as to the Federal Property Management Agency, the Federal Forestry Service, the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources and other federal agencies.
According to the public activist, the actions of these officials contain signs of corruption-related crimes that led to a violation of the property rights of the Russian Federation and the legitimate interests of citizens, as stipulated by various articles of the Criminal Code, including forgery, abuse of authority, negligence and ecocide.
“I demand to urgently suspend any type of work on these land plots, immediately conduct an inspection and take measures within my competence to protect the rights of citizens and the rights of the Russian Federation upon the violations I have identified, to reclaim forest land plots, restore the rule of law and bring the perpetrators to justice” , the activist writes.
