Astrakhan: picket held against LLC "Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan"

Pickets with demand of monetary compensation of the damage caused to health of citizens of the region are regularly held at the head office of this Limited Liability Company (LLC). The fifth picket was held on May 11.

The organizers of the action "Astrakhan is not Gazprom's trophy!" were public organizations "Union of Co-Thinkers" and "Reference Point", the newspaper "Fact and Compromat" and activists of the Astrakhan blogosphere.

The activists have been holding "single-person" pickets since April 27. A man with a poster is standing on one side of the street, while his comrades are bagging subscriptions under demands to Gazprom and communicate with passers-by on the opposite side.

"Our claims to Gazprom are as follows: to stop poisoning Astrakhan residents without compensating harm caused to their health; to pay out monthly compensations of 3000 roubles to all the citizens registered in the territory of the Astrakhan Region or to render them free-of-charge seven-day sanatorium treatment every six months," Alexander Alymov, leader of the youth movement "Reference Point" said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Mr Alymov also said about the third claim of the picketers. They insist on creation, with assistance of the Governor of the Astrakhan Region Alexander Zhilkin, of a special information centre, which will inform about the condition of the atmosphere over the Astrakhan Gas Treatment Factory (AGTF). According to activists' idea, the centre should be independent from the Gazprom's ecological service, and its information should be open. The data from the sensors of the information centre should be sent to the Internet in the real-time mode.

"The Astrakhan Region just needs an independent laboratory," Alexander Alymov believes. "For example: three accidents with victims happened in April; however, we heard no official version from the Gazprom about what had happened. We learnt about the accidents from rumours, not from official statements, although the law prohibits hiding such information from the population."

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on April 7, at about 2:00 p.m. nearby 14.00 a fire occurred at the AGTF. According to preliminary data, the accident happened at the installation for treating the gas-condensate mix.

Mr Alymov said that on May 11, in the course of the picket at the building of the LLC "Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan", provocations were initiated.

"They sent a Gazprom employee to us, who came out with a poster 'Gazprom is a trophy of fish mafia'," said the leader of the "Reference Points". "Militiamen checked up his documents: it turned out that he was from St Petersburg. Earlier, the guys who came to the picket were shadowed. They noticed it: the heelers were Gazprom employees."

According to his story, the LLC has undertaken actions in response - they launched a broad-scale PR-action in Astrakhan mass media, including the Internet.

In May, activists are going to hold 18 pickets, and to organize a mass protest rally in the Pushkin mini-park on June 6.

The top managers of the LLC refused to comment the situation. A woman from the environment protection division of the factory, who refused to present herself, said that there were no pickets held at the building of the head office.