Near Svistukha village, a team of workers with chainsaws was noticed. The same time another group of workers started to cut down trees just near environmentalists’ camp. Activists tried to protect the trees literally with their bodies. Police interfered and detained Evgenia Chirikova and 9 other activists (7 to 15 according to different information). The command to detain the activists was given by Khimki police colonel Tsurif. According to Evgenia Chirikova: "We made a cleaning day in the forest, picked up trash, when a"Volvo" with OBOP (a special section of criminal police) appeared, accompanied by seven SUVs with unknown persons, workers with chainsaws, and PSC guards. The workers were given a command to go deeper into the forest, we ran behind them to prevent the destruction of trees. We called the police, hugged the trees covering them with our bodies. OMON (Russian riot police) arrived, we were roughly torn off from the trees - for example, I was held by five policemen. At first 15 people were seized - we were put to the workers’ bus and taken to the police station. Then two more persons were detained. My phone was taken away and I was put behind the bars as a dangerous criminal. Previously, this had not happened. Apparently, we have become incredibly annoying – since now we managed to protect the forest better."
OMON took part in the arrest despite no permissions for the clearing were still produced. Eugenia Chirikova, Yaroslav Nikitenko, Sergey Ageev, Sergey Udaltsov, Anna Goncharova, Oleg Melnikov, and several other people were among the detained. The detainees were sent in the 2 nd Department of Police, Khimki. Other activists remained in the woods and still tried to cover the trees with their bodies. As a result, they were attacked by bandits. Later, OMON made a second attack on the defenders of the forest, and two more people were detained. These were Dmitri Smirnov and Suren Gazaryan. The detainees were placed into the trunk of a police UAZ car. On the way to the police station the driver of the UAZ stopped, then increased the speed so that the detained were hit against the sides of the car. The detained environmentalists protested, and when they were brought into the police station, police lieutenant Mr. Nozhenko hit Gazaryan with his fist into the face. Ghazarian bent out of pain, then Nozhenko delivered another blow - with a knee into his face. The environmentalists were charged under Article 19.1 of the Administrative Code "uzupation of power", which, as is written in the protocol, was expressed in the fact that Ghazarian "broke fences, signs, obstructed the work of clearing the highway. "The activists spent more than three hours in the department. After his release, he was able to talk to the head of the second Police department. The Head of the Deparment calmly acknowledged the practice of the department. "I can see how impertinent you are, you had to receive another blow in the face" - Gazaryan quotes the policeman.
Cutting down continued under the direct protection of OMON. All these events took place near the ruins of a summer camp, located near the plant "Fakel." After most of the activists were taken away, the remaining were attacked. One of the victims, Daniel Beilinson, reported that shortly after the departure of OMON two girls-activists rushed to the camp, shouting for help: they were attacked in the forest. The three defenders of the forest remaining in the camp rushed to the aid of the fourth, whose phone was taken away in the forest. Daniel Beilinson: "We saw an already familiar man wearing a hood and another man, bald, dressed in black, having Caucasian appearance. We demanded that they return the phone to Alexey. Then they started to beat us - beat on the head, kicked me into the face, knocked to the ground." Then the two assailants were joined by three private guards in the uniform armed with freshly sawn clubs. Thus, four defenders of the Khimki forest were severely beaten while trying to stop illegal cutting down in the area of the plant "Fakel". These were Daniel Beilinson, Paul Shekhtman, Alexey Rassolov and Vladimir Morozov. The PSC Vityaz’ securities as well as unidentified bandits took part in the beating up of the environmentalists. An ambulance was called for the activists, which took them to the Khimki city hospital. Doctors diagnosed Alexey Rassolov and Pavel Shekhtman with a brain concussion. Shekhtman also has his nose broken with displacement. He also suffered a temporary amnesia. They were hospitalized in the Khimki city hospital.
See for more details:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beilinson/sets/72157626700325624
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beilinson/5711636722/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beilinson/5711061619/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beilinson/5711059155/in/photostream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP_Sj1IPJYU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MJYPRtqV3I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYwVqxSHv4g