Big construction: Muscovites are being deprived of forests, they complain to Putin about Sobyanin

Moscow authorities have seriously decided to help their construction industry. Novye Izvestia has already reported that 1,700 architectural monuments, typically located in the city center, have lost their protected status. As it turns out, this isn't the only cleanup measure. ALL of Moscow's nature conservation areas will also be bulldozed.

In December 2024, Moscow Mayor Sobyanin abolished 146 specially protected natural areas (SPNA) in Moscow and reclassified them as specially protected green areas. This change in just one word allows the mayor's office to build roads, railways, pipelines, buildings, residential buildings, and parking lots there.

For residents of a metropolis where the air is already far from clean and fresh, this is a real disaster. If Losiny Ostrov (even though it hasn't officially lost its protected area status) becomes a continuous stream of traffic from Korolev to Moscow and back, where will pregnant women and young mothers walk, children ride bikes, and residents jog who don't want to become disabled at 40?

The mayor's office talks about the capital's tiled wonders, but the reality is different. Residents don't need new sidewalks in the spring and fall, but fresh air. More than a thousand Muscovites have submitted appeals to the presidential reception office on Ilyinka Street.

Irina lives in northeast Moscow, in Sviblovo. The Yauza River valley used to be a protected natural area, but now that idyll is gone. But the list of grievances against the city authorities is long, she says:

"We have a lot of problems in the area due to the constant, endless landscaping. An ice rink is being built in our water protection zone, and over 1,800 signatures have been collected against it, but construction hasn't been stopped. After the Yauza River valley's protected status was revoked, there are plans for development around it. It looks like they'll be building human anthills in the area. Residents who are used to living in green courtyards are very worried."

Environmentalists say the mayor's office's plans are no longer an environmental disaster, but ecocide. The banks of the Yauza River were once a protected area, which will now be transformed into a "concrete and rubber entertainment center."

"These decisions have already impacted the area's residents. Now builders and landscaping workers have a free hand. But residents believe our ecosystem must be preserved," the activist says, expressing the Muscovites' opinion.

Losiny Ostrov is under double threat—from both Moscow and the surrounding region. The national park was established on the former hunting grounds of the Grand Dukes and Tsars during the Soviet era in 1983, but the authorities had similar plans as early as 1909.

The park is unique in that it preserves the natural beauty of central Russia near a city of millions. Beavers, foxes, and hares live here, elk and wild boar graze, and coniferous, birch, and broadleaf forests grow, with endemic species.

From the Moscow region, the city of Korolev, with its intractable traffic problems, is approaching Losiny Ostrov. To alleviate the congestion on the Yaroslavl Highway, authorities in both regions may sacrifice the national park.

"We've hit a rough patch. The authorities want to build a road to Losiny Ostrov that never existed. But this is our only little island where we can recharge with fresh air, some freedom, and just take a break from the city. It's already overbuilt, and now they want to take it away from us," said another Moscow resident.

Muscovites say that they first want to divide Losiny Ostrov and then build it up.

“We need to gather all our strength and not allow the road to be built,” Irina believes.

She's not alone on Ilyinka. Other residents have come here, demanding protection for the national park. They're nervous, they don't know how to protest, the chorus of chants is disjointed, but they speak from the heart.

Will the authorities listen to them? Defenders of the national park appealed to the head of state three times. And each time, their complaints were sent to the mayor's office.

Tamara Zlotnikova , the author of the law on specially protected natural areas, came to the reception office for the second time.

"We've appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office several times. The VOOP Scientific Council decided that State Duma deputy and VOOP Chairman Vyacheslav Fetisov would forward his appeal to law enforcement. All appeals to the authorities, in violation of two—or, in the deputy's case, three—federal laws, were directed to Moscow," says Tamara Zlotnikova, Doctor of Law.

Tamara Zlotnikova insisted on this in the president’s reception room:

Why are Moscow authorities allowed to violate the Constitution of the Russian Federation, six federal laws, and the Moscow City Charter? All of these norms protect citizens' rights to environmental well-being, and yet they are being violated.

The presidential administration advised appealing to the court and the prosecutor's office. But environmentalists have done this more than once. And they've already gone through two levels of court.

"I mentioned at the reception that we're preparing an appeal to Bastrykin. As a doctor of law, I see grounds for a possible investigation into three criminal offenses. We'll ask him to look into the environmental safety violation, because environmental safety is recognized as part of security by all national directives," the lawyer believes.

The administration told the doctor of law that they couldn't resolve issues on behalf of the oversight bodies. But the thousands of people turning to the head of state aren't appealing to the prosecutor's office because they can't appeal to the prosecutor's office, Tamara Zlotnikova reports, referring to a conversation in high-ranking offices. They simply have no other way to be heard.

146 specially protected natural areas have been effectively removed from federal legislation and have ceased to be national treasures, as stipulated in the Forest Code and the law on specially protected natural areas.

Environmentalists' greatest fear is that this "hydra" of Moscow's denial of protected areas will spread throughout the country. Tamara Zlotnikova says:

"We will lose the country's protected areas, because most of them are regional protected areas. This damage could be even greater than during Khrushchev's time, when 100 protected areas were destroyed."

The lawyer says the public has few legal avenues left to express their discontent. People expect to resolve the issue within the law. Tamara Zlotnikova believes Moscow's problem is not only environmental but also political. If the authorities ignore the people's demands, where will they go, says the professor? Rightly so: into the opposition.