Time to read: 12 minutes(s)

With anti-bulldozer signs, environmental activists come out to protect the oak groves of the Volga-Akhtarsk floodplain. This green oasis amidst the Volga steppes has become an obstacle to the construction of a road much needed by local authorities.

Given: point A (Volgograd) and point B (Volzhsky). The straight-line distance between them is approximately 20 km. How can a road from point A to point B be built in the most efficient way?

This problem can be solved in various ways. We can try to save money: build the road according to the terrain, avoid creating unnecessary lanes—in short, avoid wasting billions of dollars. We can prioritize preserving the natural environment of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain: avoid cutting down trees and destroying wetlands where numerous birds nest.

The Volgograd region authorities have taken a third approach: to cut down and destroy—on a grand scale, to spend—recklessly. And, most importantly, to ignore the scientists and activists trying to stop the destruction of this island of protected nature.

"NeMoscow" got acquainted with investigation The Civil Initiative Against Environmental Crime (ANO) spoke with Volgograd environmental activists about the events that have been unfolding around the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain for several years.

The Volga-Akhtuba floodplain is a green oasis amid the semi-deserts of the Caspian Lowland. The oak groves here, located between the Volga and Akhtuba rivers, are a remarkable natural phenomenon. считает Vice President of the Russian Geographical Society, Chairman of the Standing Environmental Commission of the Russian Geographical Society, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Chibilev:

"Above the Volgograd Reservoir dam, floodplain oak forests have been completely destroyed by the construction of the Volga-Kama Cascade of artificial reservoirs. Below Volgograd, natural floodplain oak forests have been almost completely cleared or are disappearing as they move south due to changing climate conditions. It's certainly a miracle that they have survived in such large numbers in the Volgograd area."

In 2011, UNESCO included the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain Nature Park in the International Network of Biosphere Reserves. It is home to nesting sites for numerous rare and endangered bird species and the last remaining natural spawning grounds of sturgeon.

However, in 2018, local authorities decided to build a transport corridor between the cities of Volgograd and Volzhsky. Of several possible route options, they chose one that passes through a natural park and requires clearing floodplain oak groves—for a number of reasons, discussed below.

On according to environmentalists' calculationsThe total area of ​​clear-cut forest along the entire route was to be 67 hectares; approximately 14,4 large trees, including oaks, would be felled.

The regional committee on natural resources' planned targets were even more ambitious: the first stage involved the felling of 17,3 trees and shrubs, 2,8 of which were oaks of various ages; the second stage involved the felling of another 14,1 trees, 4,2 of which were oaks.

In the summer of 2021, construction began on the Third Launch Complex of the Volga River Bridge (the project's official name). In response, people with signs came out to block the bulldozers.

Thus began the active phase of confrontation between the defenders of the floodplain and those for whom it became an annoying obstacle to the realization of their own interests.

For today petition Nearly 52 people signed the petition titled "Save the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain Nature Park!"

The third launch complex of the bridge crossing over the Volga River involves the construction of a 14,2 km long road between the bridge crossings over the Volga River (the first launch complex) and the Akhtuba River (the second launch complex) with the construction of floodplain bridges. Construction is being carried out JSC "EKS Group of Companies".  
The first phase includes the construction of two bridges over creeks, as well as a traffic interchange near the exit to the Lebyazhya Polyana farmstead, home to an elite cottage community. Completion of the first phase is scheduled for the end of 2023. By May 2023, construction workers have cleared forest along approximately a third of the road's total length.

"In 2018, Governor Andrei Bocharov wrote a letter to Putin asking him to consider co-financing the construction of a road to China and Kazakhstan through the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain. In the letter, Putin wrote something to one of the ministers, saying something like, 'Study this issue.' It's a meaningless phrase, but our officials at all levels are now positioning it as Putin's order to build this absolutely pointless road," says Volgograd lawyer Ivan Ivanov, one of the first to raise the issue of logging in the floodplain. "And now a bunch of officials, for reasons unknown to me, have decided to draw up a plan and build a road through the floodplain oak groves—instead of widening the existing road, as Governor Bocharov promised at the end of 2017."

According to Ivan, "certain individuals from the regional administration, including those close to the governor," living in an elite residential community in the village of Lebyazhya Polyana, experienced difficulties traveling along the old road. The new road, however, should make access from central Volgograd to the aforementioned luxury homes more convenient. At least, Ivanov suspects this circumstance was a major consideration in the design process.

"Because the section of road that will ultimately be built leads to nowhere: it ends at the workers' settlement of Srednyaya Akhtuba," the lawyer explains.

The initial project budget for the road was around 12 billion, but given the cost increases that have occurred since 2020, the amount should double, according to Ivan's estimates.

"Furthermore, according to environmentalists' rough estimates, damage to our flora and fauna will amount to over 10 billion rubles. Ultimately, this empty road to nowhere will cost our country 20-30 billion rubles. This is despite the fact that on the right side of the Volga there is a normal federal highway, which allows easy access to Kazakhstan and China via detours."

"I'm convinced this is one big scam," Ivan continues. "Meanwhile, federal laws explicitly prohibit altering the historically formed landscape, cutting down trees, or changing the hydrological regimes within the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain Nature Park, a specially protected natural area."

Federal laws prohibit it, but regional laws now permit it: in 2021, the Regulations on the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain Regional Nature Park were slightly amended: clause 4.5 was updated to state that logging of forest stands is, of course, prohibited, but there are exceptions: logging is now permitted "on land plots designated for the construction, reconstruction, and operation of linear facilities, the placement of which is permitted by these Regulations, provided that these facilities are included in duly approved territorial planning documents."

“I believe that the repeal of this clause of the Park Regulations by the local legislative authority should be considered an act against nature,” commented innovation by Academician Chibilev.

Who in the Volgograd regional administration cares about the opinion of some academic?

"I'll reiterate my position: I consider this road to be of utmost importance for the residents of the Sredneakhtubinsky District, Volgograd, Volzhsky, Zavolzhye, and the entire region. The road is being built very actively, ahead of schedule, and everything is being implemented within the framework of current legislation and in compliance with environmental requirements. Ten times more trees will be planted than will be cut down, and for ten years, those who maintain this road will care for the trees. This road is necessary and important.

I'm really fed up with it. People have been putting up with it for decades. Constant traffic jams; if there's an accident, you can't get anywhere, and even an ambulance can't get through. Construction of this road was long overdue. There's no need to overthink it. The road is long overdue, it will be built, and we'll comply with all requirements, including environmental legislation. But we also need to ask the people. Do they really want their community to be the target of massive transit traffic from all over the Trans-Volga region? When the road was designed, many factors were taken into account, including public safety. Of course, there are still some challenges that need to be addressed, but the first stage of the road should be completed by 2023. The road is essential for the development of the region, the country, and security."

This is how Volgograd Region Governor Andrei Bocharov responded to a question about building a road across the floodplain during a "direct line" broadcast.

"People, people! Ordinary people asked for it!"

Volgograd resident Nina Skachkova joined environmental activists in May 2021.

"A friend told me about a bike ride in the floodplain. Before that, she'd said there was some logging going on in the floodplain, but I hadn't really paid attention, because until you see it with your own eyes, you live your life peacefully and it doesn't really bother you," says Nina. "Then Misha Solomonov organized that bike ride, and they showed us this beautiful, clean forest and the area where the logging would take place. It really touched me, and I realized it wasn't enough to just watch—I had to do something."

Then someone added Nina to the "PoimaZhiva" group on Instagram, and she started visiting the logging sites that had just begun that summer. She took photographs, compiled reports on the number of trees cut down and birds' nests destroyed, and in the fall, counted endangered stag beetles.

In August 2021, the same indefatigable Mikhail Solomonov organized a tent camp at the official "green parking lot" of the nature park. The activists managed to post in the group, "Come visit us, it's wonderful here," and conduct a short environmental education session. Afterward, representatives of the regional Committee for Natural Resources and Ecology arrived along with the police and, for unknown reasons, confiscated the tents from the floodplain defenders. The tents, incidentally, were not their own, but sponsored ones, and they were never returned.

 Meanwhile, they continued to cut down the trees.

"One time, the guys got a text or a call that the oak trees had been cut down, and we went to document it," Nina recalls. "There, when you turn onto Lebyazhya Polyana, coming from the city, there's a forest on the right side and a vacant lot on the left. Why didn't they widen the road toward the vacant lot? No, they started chopping down the oaks right away. I walked around taking photos and videos—there were stumps there, quite thick, you couldn't wrap your arms around them. These weren't young trees, they were perfectly healthy. I felt so sorry for them—it was as painful as walking through a cemetery. I filed two police reports then, and 11 were filed that day. Then, across from Lebyazhya Polyana, they built a lumber yard in the vacant lot. KamAZ trucks drove in and dumped solid timber—there wasn't even any soil there, just timber..."

After one major logging operation, social media posts began appearing. People began coming and writing the names of those primarily responsible for the logging on the stumps. A whole alley of stumps appeared: one named after Governor Bocharov, another named after Makanova, head of the Department of Specially Protected Natural Areas of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, another named after Romanova, chair of the regional committee for natural resources, another named Vasiliev, chair of the committee for transport and road infrastructure, and others.

In July 2021, activist Galina Tikhenko was fined 150 rubles under Part 8 of Article 202 (repeated violation of picket rules). And in February 2022, Mikhail Solomonov was arrested for 10 days: allegedly, during a bike ride, he committed an offense under Article 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation ("Organizing a large simultaneous presence and/or movement of citizens in public places, resulting in a violation of public order"), and then negligently filmed a police officer on his phone.

Although no one familiar with the situation had any doubt that this was punishment for environmental activism. 

"I continue to write complaints to the Prosecutor General's Office and the Investigative Committee, demanding that they take measures to establish the damage to nature and to investigate the actual criminal case that needs to be opened," says Ivan Ivanov.

March 13, 2023 Sredneakhtubinsky Interdistrict Investigative Department opened a criminal case The Volgograd Region Committee for Natural Resources, Forestry, and Ecology officials were charged with improper performance of their official duties under the article "Negligence" of the Russian Criminal Code. However, on March 15, Sredneakhtubinsky District Prosecutor Zhanna Selyutina overturned the decision to initiate criminal proceedings.

"But I have a response from investigators from about a month ago stating that the procedural review is ongoing. I asked Bastrykin to request this investigation from the regional office of the Investigative Committee so that they can open a case, and so that the regional prosecutor can't take it upon himself to dismiss this criminal case. However, neither the Investigative Committee nor the prosecutor's office want to address environmental crimes in the Volgograd Region and, I believe, are covering up for the perpetrators," Ivanov continues.

According to him, scientists from Moscow State University gave extremely low marks to the environmental assessments conducted by "local scientists" specifically for government officials:  

"They responded that these environmental assessments were complete shams, a collection of formal phrases written without even a site visit or a real analysis of the environmental impacts on the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain resulting from the construction of a five-meter-thick embankment 14 kilometers long. Data falsification is also taking place," Ivan asserts.

Road construction on the Volga-Akhtuba Floodplain Nature Park will lead to irreversible environmental consequences and the loss of habitats for protected plant and animal species, according to a report issued at the request of environmental activist Anton Getmanenko. подготовили Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University, Professor Leonid Korzun and Head of the Department of Higher Plants at the Faculty of Biology Dmitry Sokolov.

But who in the Volgograd regional administration cares about the opinion of some botanist?

By the way, Volgograd media are reporting an unprecedented infestation of tree pests in the forests of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain. No, they're talking about insects—what were you thinking of?