On September 2, around 11pm, windows of a flat of one of anti-fascists, Vladimir Skopintsev, who is registered in Troitsk, Moscow region, were shot at using a gun. When the shooter saw a silhouette of a person in the window — that was Vladimir’s younger brother, Andrey, – a shot was made and a bullet passed near Andrey’s head.

Police was called to the crime scene, but instead of investigating the case, policemen have taken Andrey and his father to the local police station. Andrey’s father was asked to wait in the corridor, while his son was taken into a room, where the policemen threatened him with criminal prosecution for extremism and started to beat him up. Only in the morning Andrey and his father managed to leave Troitsk town police station, while Andrey’s passport remained with the police — the latter refused to give it back to Andrey. Andrey Skopintsev contacted human rights activists for legal assistance.

We think that there are two possible versions of who could have staged this attack. Firstly, it could have been members of an underground Nazi group, since participants of antifascist movement on numerous occasions had become victims of Nazi attacks, including the cases when firearms had been used. Secondly, the attack could have come from the same people who have earlier organized violent raids against activists in Khimki. This version is supported by the fact that the attack was carried out in an outright manner, while the Moscow regional police in fact sided with the attackers — both in Khimki and after the recent attack in Troitsk.

Once again we would like to report the scandalous cases when social activists and journalists were attacked because of their involvement in a public campaign in defense of Khimki forest.

November 13, 2008 — Mikhail Beketov, activist of the campaign in defense of Khimki forest and editor of Khimkinskaya Pravda, a local newspaper, which was in opposition to the town authorities, was severely beaten and found uncouscious. He had multiple broken bones and skull.

March 30, 2009 — Sergey Protazanov, designer of the local independent newspaper Grazhdanskoye Soglasiye, was beaten up and later died. At the time of the attack he was working on a special issue of the newspaper devoted to violations during the local elections. This case was widely publicised in the press.

July 25, 2009 — persons unknown have beaten up and shot with a traumatic gun Albert Pchelintsev, head of the Khimki foundation «Against corruption, fraud and indignity». «You are opening your mouth too often», – the attackers said and shot him into the mouth. Pchelintsev was taken into emergency and was operated. His life was saved, but his vocal cords were severely damaged.

November 16, 2009 — Vitaly Kapytsev, 70-year old activist of the campaign in defense of Khimki forest, was attacked in his home — persons unknown threw a bomb into his window and only by accident he was not killed. Several days before that an unknown person knocked on his door, tried to enter and knife him, but Kapytsev’s dogs prevented this.

July 16, 2010 — Yevgeniya Chirikova, one of the leaders of eco-activists fighting against the destrution of Khimki forest, was attacked — the attacker tried to run her down with a car (SUV Kia, license plate В 104 УЕ 98) and broke her mobile phone.

Campaign for the release of Khimki hostages has held a press conference on August 30, reporting the numerous cases of pressure from the law enforcement agencies on the anti-fascist scene, whose activists striggle against the destruction of Khimki forest.

Campaign for the Release of the Khimki Hostages

+7 (915) 053-5912

http://khimkibattle.org