The Khimki protests rode a growing wave of civic activism in Russia. On August 26 the president reversed course and ordered a halt to construction, pending further consultation a month later, he even fired the once invincible Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, who had become a key supporter of the road. But over the next two months, thousands marched and attended concerts in solidarity with the forest defenders, culminating in an appeal to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev from U2 frontman Bono to stop the project. After all, the forest's demolition had been planned for years, and previous protests had come to nothing. Petersburg highway in July, they were not prepared for the intensity of the backlash.
What sounds like the plot of an absurdist play is actually sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky's description of a recent protest in Russia, when community activists made international headlines by blocking the government's construction of a toll road through the suburban Moscow forest of Khimki.When authorities arrested a group of people opposed to the start of logging for the proposed Moscow–St.
"Imagine a neighborhood soccer team defeating a squad of professionals because the professionals all got drunk, beat each other up, broke each other's legs and didn't make it out onto the pitch."
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