ECO-BATTLE IN RUSSIA

Russian environmentalists hit out this week at the proposed plans to clear a centuries-old forest to make way for a major new road between Moscow and Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Around 100 masked activists separated from a march in Khimki, the region where the forest is, and descended on the city hall where they hurled bottles, fireworks and - according to some sources, Molotov cocktails - at the building, spraying pro-forest slogans on the walls. By the time cops arrived the protesters had made their escape. The police then hotfooted it to the protest camp in the woods, set up in July to protect the land, but made no arrests. Seemingly restrained by Russian standards, they only did their best to distract the camp from preparing for their two upcoming meetings with official bodies to discuss the destruction of the forest. Since this visit police have reverted to type, arresting and detaining without charge two anti-fash civil rights activists - Alexey Gaskarov and Maxim Solopovin - in connection with the city hall violence.

This has been a hotly contested issue ever since the state revealed their plans. A local journalist who opposed the scheme at the beginning was brutally beaten and left crippled and brain-damaged in 2008 by a mystery assailant. Some protesters from the camp and two journalists were also attacked in July this year by a group wearing neo-fascist symbols, but when the police arrived they started arresting the protesters rather than their attackers.

* See Facebook - Freedom for Russian antifascists Alexei Gaskarov & Maxim Solopov