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Residents of Petrozavodsk have launched a fight for a park – part of the green space has been handed over to a secret “investment project.”

This time, the Savin Navolok forest park, popular with local residents on the shores of Lake Onega, came under attack. 15 hectares of the territory were transferred without a tender to the company "Ecopark Onega Village", which bind with the business empire of Karelian senator and United Russia member Igor Zubarev. 

Residents united to fight for the park, held a meeting, and created an initiative group to collect signatures and attempt to challenge the Karelia governor's order to transfer the land in court. They are being assisted by Yabloko deputies.

The park was supposed to be part of the so-called "green belt" previously approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources. However, It revealed, that it was registered in the cadastral register at completely different coordinates than those specified in the order itself. Thus, a whole series of natural areas were secretly excluded from the "green belt." This came to light during the court case surrounding another park, Wilda, where trees were cut down to make way for a stone processing plant.

 Emilia Slabunova, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia, who was present at the meeting remindedThe head of the republic, Artur Parfenchikov, instructed municipal officials to "study the opinions and positions of citizens" when implementing investment projects. In fact, not only are city residents uninformed about the projects in parks, but information is not even provided in response to parliamentary inquiries.