NGOs welcome enquiry by Paris prosecutor into financial crimes related to the VINCI CONCESSIONS RUSSIE SA Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway
October 4, 2013
Paris, 3 October 2013 – Todays announcement by the Paris Prosecutor to open a preliminary enquiry into financial crimes related to the construction of a motorway between Moscow and St. Petersburg [1] has been welcomed by NGOs Sherpa, Russie-Libertés, CEE Bankwatch Network, MOBO Princip, and members of Russian civil society, who lodged the complaint in June 2013.
Russian and European NGO investigations lead to the filing of a complaint against VINCI CONCESSIONS RUSSIE SA and against unknown persons before the Nanterre Public Prosecutor
June 24, 2013
Paris, 24 June 2013 – Sherpa, Russie-Libertés, CEE Bankwatch Network and MOBO Princip, as well as members of Russian civil society such as the environmental activist Evgenia Chirikova, today submitted to the Public Prosecutor of Nanterre, France, a complaint relating to the conditions in which the NORTH WEST CONCESSION COMPANY – NWCC – , which is wholly owned by the French company VINCI CONCESSIONS RUSSIE, was awarded a public contract in 2009 concerning the construction of the highway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg.
Guest post: A Russian journalist and Khimki forest activist is dead
April 10, 2013
The news circulated yesterday that Mikhail Beketov, a Russian journalist who campaigned against corrupt practices in connection to the planned highway construction through Khimki Forest, has died. This guest post by Mikhail Matveev and Ivan Smirnov, fellow Khimki activists, tells Beketov’s story.
Prison netbook – Russia and the arrest of an environmental activist
January 13, 2012
Shortly after 80 000 people took to Moscow’s streets at the end of December to oppose the 4 December controversial parliamentary elections that resulted in United Russia retaining control of parliament, Bankwatch ally and Khimki forest defender Yaroslav Nikitenko was forced to spend ten days in jail over a fabricated administrative crime.
EBRD can’t stay away from Russian motorways – Khimki destruction goes ahead while women and children are being arrested
February 11, 2011
Yesterday, police in Khimki arrested an activist of the Movement for the Defence of Khimki Forest. The activist Alla Chernyshova and her daughters of 3 and 6 had to spend more than five hours in custody where she was questioned as the main suspect for a false bomb threat.
Khimki Forest activist arrested for holding banner during picket action
September 13, 2010
Russian activist Yaroslav Nikitenko was arrested by police on Saturday during a legally permitted picket action in the town of Khimki near Moscow. The action was part of the campaign to change the route of the planned Moscow-St Petersburg motorway so that it avoids the Khimki Forest.
In Moscow, thousands protest destruction of Khimki Forest
August 23, 2010
In spite of heavy policing, several thousand people yesterday rallied at a concert in Pushkin Square to voice opposition to the destruction of the Khimki Forest to make way for the EUR 1.5 billion first section of the Moscow – St. Petersburg motorway, a project that may receive financial blessings from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank.
