Russian Activists Continue Their Fight to Thwart Highway Construction Plans

摘要

Activists in Moscow have vowed to persist with their campaign against plans to bulldoze a highway through a radioactive waste site, despite a police crackdown and mass detentions. The campaign started two months ago as a small grassroots effort, and made national headlines in Russia after riot police stormed the protesters' make-shift command post near the site and detained more than 60 people. Recently, several dozen people gathered near the site once again. "We will continue to fight. Of course, we're not willing to give up," Larisa Bodrova, one of the activists, told The Associated Press before the meeting. Awareness about environmental issues has been growing in Russia in recent years. In a poll released in December 2019 by the Levada independent pollster, 48% of Russians named environmental pollution as the number one threat of the 21st century, prioritizing it over terrorism.