On August 11, an employee of private security company Garant Bezopasnosty («safety guarantor») hit the hand of Viktor Kokarev, a freelance journalist cooperating with "7x7", who was recording a video at station Shies, where the landfill construction takes place currently. This was reported by Kokarev himself on August 13.
The journalist told that, while he was recording his video, one of the security guards, whom he was recording, approached him, and roughly asked why Kokarev was doing that. The operator explained that he was a journalist and the security guard could call the police if «anything did not suit him»:
— Then he slapped my right hand which I was holding the leading camera with. I hit my fingers hard on the lens. Then he continued to threaten me with beating. And after that he realized, apparently, that I was recording him, and he got back.
photo by Viktor Kokarev
Kokarev filed a report in the temporary police station to the acting head of the Interior Ministry for Lensky district of Arkhangelsk oblast Vladimir Osherov.
According to him, the police watched the video, took photos of the guard and a copy of the journalist’s press card:
— They took [the report] upon preventing activity of a journalist, abuse of authority, and beating. They will consider, according to them, these three articles.
According to Kokarev, two police officers took away some employee of PSC towards Urdoma on August 12. The Interior Ministry hasn't contacted the journalist yet.
The police department of Lensky district refused to give any comments and suggested writing a request to the press service.
The construction of the landfill for Moscow garbage at station Shies in Lensky district of Arkhangelsk oblast was revealed at the end of July 2018. Residents of the region and of the neighboring Komi Republic united against the landfill, later other regions joined the protest.
Activists organized a round-the-clock watch at station Shies in December 2018 to record violations. They had several conflicts with the guards. The last one occurred on August 6, 11 people got hurt.
