Just days after the welcomed but belated announcement from Russian President Medvedev that tree felling in Khimki Forest must be halted while renewed public consultations take place over the routing of the Moscow – St. Petersburg motorway, the process is already in danger of becoming a rubber-stamping exercise. Bankwatch and the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest have asked both the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Recontruction and to ensure a full and fair consultation process.

While it had been announced that a hearing will take place on 16 September, there is no word on how any wider consultation process will be organised and whether any environmental impact assessment documents will be made available on which to base inputs, thus creating a severe risk that the exercise will be mainly cosmetic.

Meanwhile the Khimki administration is using deceptive methods to gather signatures in favour of the currently proposed route. Workers of municipal enterprises have been involved on a compulsory basis in rallies in support of the current option of the motorway. Moreover teams of pro-administration propagandists are being deployed to various settlements to spread rumours among locals that any alternative option would lead to massive demolition of residential houses – even in places far from any possible placement of the motorway.

The international financial institutions often claim that engaging in projects results in better outcomes than if they were not involved. Now is a key moment to see whether they can indeed affect real changes in this project.