Eight of the 18 deputies of the Council of deputies of Lensky district in Arkhangelsk Oblast voted against the head of the municipality Alexei Torkov signing the agreement with the government of Moscow about the possible implementation of project "Ekotekhnopark Shies". This was published on September 26 in community "Pomorye Is Not a Dump!".
The question was put to the vote by the Deputy Lyudmila Maryina. She addressed to the colleagues calling them «undear deputies» and declared that deputies did not carry out the powers and acted against the interests of citizens. Maryina suggested those, who did not have the courage, giving their seats in the Council to people who would do what the voters wanted them to do:
— People tell [me] directly. They address me as well that we are not respected. And why is that, mainly? Because we can't put our own disrespectful head back. We are silent. There is no Deputy here, with some minor exception, that stood up and said: "Alexei Glebovich [Torkov], come to senses!" I am directly told that some of us deliberately go against the will of the people, having our own interest, others are afraid for their portfolios and sing along to the beat of our disrespectful head of the district. He is really brainwashed, he has become a completely different person, — said Maryina, turning to Torkov, who was a couple steps from her. Torkov grinned in response.
In her speech, Maryina said that station Shies was located in a swampy area and therefore it was impossible to build a landfill under the current legislation.
As a result, eight deputies voted for the initiative of Maryina: Tamara Lobanova, Nadezhda Tsyvtsyna, Rudolph Klimov, Sergey Plekhnevich, Ivan Tupysev, Sergey Kovalevsky, Vladislav Khlyzov, and Maryina itself. They lacked two votes for adoption of the initiative.
Preparatory work for the construction of an industrial facility near the abandoned village of Shies and the railway station of the same name on the border of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic began in the summer of 2018. Local residents found out that the authorities wanted to build a solid waste landfill here for the needs of Moscow and Moscow Oblast, and began to protest against this construction.
Residents of Arkhangelsk, Syktyvkar, and other nearby settlements held protests, including uncoordinated ones, and the most active opponents of the dump organized an eco-watch — a tent camp near the station to prevent the illegal, in their opinion, construction of the landfill.
In June 2019, the works on the construction of the landfill were temporarily stopped for all necessary examinations.
