In the village of Yarensk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Vilegodsk district court discharged activist Mikhail Gabov, whom the police suspected of spraying tear-gas towards employees of the private security company Garant Bezopasnosty («safety guarantor»), from custody. The community of the Vychegda Protection Committee reported it on October 26.
The court banned activist Mikhail Gabov from appearing near station Shies, where a camp of the landfill builders was located and where activists of Shies commune set a tent camp. Gabov was prosecuted under Article 116 of the Criminal Code («Battery or the commission of similar violent actions, which have caused physical pain but not involved serious consequences»). According to the police, the incident with pepper spray occurred at Shies in June 2019, when activists and local residents tried to resist the construction of a fence around the site of the proposed construction of the landfill.
On October 23, Mikhail Gabov's house was searched, after which he was taken away for questioning, and he remained in custody until the night of October 24–25.
Another eco-activist Nikita Baryshnikov, who participated in conflicts with the guards of the construction site at Shies, is charged with the similar article. He was also banned from going to station Shies and assigned a psychiatric examination. One-person pickets were held in Syktyvkar in support of Baryshnikov. Pickets in defense of Mikhail Gabov were also held in the capital of Komi and Yarensk on October 24.
The conflict between residents of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the builders of the landfill at station Shies on the border with Komi began in the second half of 2018, when local residents learned about plans to store waste from Moscow in Lensky district. Activists organized a camp and began to monitor the actions of the builders.
In the summer of 2019, there were several conflicts between activists on one side and builders, private security company employees, and the National Guard on the other. In Arkhangelsk Oblast and Komi, several mass actions of thousands (the including uncoordinated ones) against import of the garbage from the capital to Pomorye were held.
