On July 18, residents of Petrozavodsk held one-person pickets near the Kamenny Bor (‘Stone Forest’) Park where the construction of a kindergarten began in February 2020. The Supreme Court of Karelia recognized the allocation of land for this purpose illegal, but the construction works are going on.
It was decided to hold one-person pickets, because in July, the developer continued to carry sand for the construction of a kindergarten to the park, despite the court’s decision. On June 18, the Supreme Court of Karelia held that the land plot had been allocated for the kindergarten illegally. Defenders of the park do not understand why Governor Artur Parfenchikov did not order to stop the construction thereafter.
Participants of the one-person pickets emphasize that they are not against the kindergarten, but against the illegal destruction of the park's territory. On the afternoon of July 18, they took turns standing near the park with a poster saying, "I oppose the illegal construction in the park and transferring the memorial to Yakov Stepanov!". Police officers approached one of the picketers and demanded seeing her passport. No one was detained at the rally.
- Everyone was positive, drivers-by stopped, beeped, and supported us, - Mikhail Novozhilov, one of the coordinators of community "The keepers of Kamenny Bor", told 7x7.
Defenders of the park believe that it is important for everyone to stop its destruction:
- You may ask: why should I attend the Memory Keepers Flashmob, if it is not my issue? And our answer is:
No, this is an issue for everyone, because today, they have decided to build something in the Kamenny Bor Park illegally, and tomorrow, they will come to your house, square, park and decide to demolish your grandfather's grave just as they have once demolished the monument to Yasha Stepanov, the defender of the Motherland.
In the announcement of this action, residents compared the behavior of officials in Russia and in the United States. In their opinion, a situation like the one with the Kamenny Bor Park would be impossible in America:
- Officials Perov, Miroshnik, Parfenchikov, and deputy Bodnarchuk cannot simply go, for example, to New York and say that they are going to build a kindergarten in Central Park in New York, because then the residents of nearby houses, having learned about this and realizing that the price of their apartments will decrease sharply, will take the officials to the police station themselves, and then the court will condemn these officials to prison for abuse of office as well. Are we any worse than New Yorkers? - the announcement of one-person pickets in community "The keepers of Kamenny Bor" says.
Land preparation for the construction of a kindergarten began in the Kamenny Bor Park at the request of the Major Construction Work Department in February 2020. Local people opposed the forest clearing and construction works. They disrupted the works and prevented their resumption, installed a memorial sign to a soldier of the Great Patriotic War to replace the one destroyed by the builders, found human remains at the construction site that could belong to the Red Army soldiers.
The builders dismantled the monument to Yakov Stepanov, a soldier of the destruction battalion. Residents raised money and installed a new memorial sign in April.
Kirill Prokhorov, the author of public page "Gorozhanin" (‘City Dweller’) about Petrozavodsk on vk.com, said that Gennady Bodnarchuk, the deputy of the district where the park is located, kept out of the issue all this time. Bodnarchuk was arrested on July 17 on suspicion of taking a grand bribe.
