27 August 2010 / REUTERS, MOSCOW
The ruling United Russia Party asked President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday to freeze the construction of a disputed motorway which has become a political issue for the Kremlin after a wave of protests.
The construction of the toll motorway from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, which threatens a popular forest in Khimki outside Russia’s capital, has come under fire from both ecologists and human rights activists. Protests culminated with a concert and rally in central Moscow in central Moscow on Sunday, featuring Russia’s rock music icon Yuri Shevchuk. It attracted more than 2,000 people, the highest for such a protest for many years. United Russia, the arm of the Kremlin used to see laws through a docile parliament, said it had asked Medvedev to halt the construction, according to a statement posted on the party’s website www.edinros.ru. “Today we turned to President Dmitry Medvedev, asking him to tackle the situation surrounding the construction works for making the Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway running through the Khimki forest,” Boris Gryzlov, a senior United Russia official and speaker of parliament, said in a statement. He said that although the party had varying opinions regarding the construction, the project should be reviewed. The motorway could be diverted and built through another Moscow area in the north of the capital, city district head and former ecology official Oleg Mitvol told RIA news agency.
