Moscow police have confirmed the detention of a group of environmental activists, including the leader of the movement for the protection of the Khimki forest, Yevgeniya Chirikova, at a protest in Khimki Forest on 6 June. "Today at 1300 (Moscow time, 0900 gmt) the police received a report from a lawyer for the construction company that a group of citizens was impeding construction work in the forest near the Fakel plant," head of the press service of the Interior Ministry's main directorate for Moscow Region Yevgeniy Gildeyev told Interfax news agency on the same day.
He said that, having arrived at the scene, police established that six people including Chirikova were impeding construction work: they were throwing stones at tractors and lay down under the tracks of the diggers and construction equipment.
"Police employees warned them about the illegality of their actions; not reacting to the warning, they continued to impede the builders' work," Gildeyev said, adding that the group was detained and taken to a police station for administrative protocols to be drawn up against them.
For her part Chirikova said that she is intending to sue the law-enforcement agencies for disseminating false information about the activists' hindering the work of the building company in Khimki forest.
"For spreading defamatory information through official channels, we will file a lawsuit; this time we will go right to the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) if necessary," Chirikova wrote on her Twitter microblog (http://twitter.com/#!/4irikova) on the same day.
Moscow police have confirmed the detention of a group of environmental activists, including the leader of the movement for the protection of the Khimki forest, Yevgeniya Chirikova, at a protest in Khimki Forest on 6 June.
"Today at 1300 (Moscow time, 0900 gmt) the police received a report from a lawyer for the construction company that a group of citizens was impeding construction work in the forest near the Fakel plant," head of the press service of the Interior Ministry's main directorate for Moscow Region Yevgeniy Gildeyev told Interfax news agency on the same day.
He said that, having arrived at the scene, police established that six people including Chirikova were impeding construction work: they were throwing stones at tractors and lay down under the tracks of the diggers and construction equipment.
"Police employees warned them about the illegality of their actions; not reacting to the warning, they continued to impede the builders' work," Gildeyev said, adding that the group was detained and taken to a police station for administrative protocols to be drawn up against them.
For her part Chirikova said that she is intending to sue the law-enforcement agencies for disseminating false information about the activists' hindering the work of the building company in Khimki forest.
"For spreading defamatory information through official channels, we will file a lawsuit; this time we will go right to the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) if necessary," Chirikova wrote on her Twitter microblog (http://twitter.com/#!/4irikova) on the same day.