A conviction has been affirmed against Andrei Khristoforov, a performance artist and defender of Shies known as Drevarkh Prosvetlyonnyi (‘The Enlightened’), the 29.ru Media Outlet reports. The man will be tried under the article on the use of violence against a police officer (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In early September, the Arkhangelsk Transport Investigation Department sent the conclusion to indict to the prosecutor. On September 27, Drevarkh had a look at it himself.
In the summer of 2019, at the height of the protests at the Shies station, a criminal case was opened against Khristoforov under the article on the use of violence against a representative of power (Article 318 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, the activist tasered a police officer who tried to detain Drevarkh for triggering an emergency brake valve and stopping a train near the Shies station. As for Khristoforov, he claimed that it was he who had been beaten.
The 29.ru Media Outlet has published witness statements, which say that law enforcement officers demanded that Drevarkh go with them, so that they draw up a protocol against him on stopping the train without permission. Witnesses claim that they saw the activist taser the policeman in the left hand, which caused him "acute physical pain". After that, Drevarkh was tasered back in the leg, was knocked down, and they tried to put handcuffs on him. The statement of victim Shulgin says that Khristoforov began to resist, tried to get up without permission, cursed and threatened to bite the policeman's leg off if he did not let him go. In addition, witnesses allegedly saw Drevarkh show pepper spray before using a stun gun.
At the same time, the expert opinion says that Shulgin does not have any evidence of being tasered.
Since mid-August 2021, Drevarch has been under house arrest. The activist has been hiding from the police for more than two years. He was put on the federal wanted list. However, in August, Khristoforov surrendered to the authorities. He spent two years in Ukraine seeking asylum after being charged with assaulting a police officer in Russia.
Protests against the construction of a landfill for the import of waste from Moscow at the Shies station (the border of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic) took more than a year and a half. Activists fixed a tent camp and organized a round-the-clock watch to prevent the object’s construction. At the same time, large-scale protests were held in several cities and towns of Arkhangelsk Oblast and the Komi Republic. As a result, the Technopark Company has withdrawn from building the object, having promised to reclaim the territory by the summer of 2021. According to activists, the last construction equipment left Shies on August 11.
