Stavropol: bloggers clean Taman Forest

A public subbotnik within the all-Russian campaign "Blogger Against Garbage" was held on September 8 in Stavropol. About 70 persons went out to clean the Taman Forest.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learnt from Margarita Saakova, a participant of the action and an activist of the movement "Belaya Lenta" (White Ribbon), mainly students had acted as cleaners. For two hours they gathered about 240 bags of garbage and cleared a number of walking tracks in the forest.

Ekaterina Ponomarenko, another participant of the subbotnik and an activist of the civil movement "Narodnaya Volya" (People's Will), has added that the action was marred by an unpleasant incident.

According to her story, the participants gathered in Dzerzhinsky Street under flags with logos of the sponsors; and the organizers gave white-and-green T-shirts with the words "Blogger Against Garbage" to the activists.

"A woman from a neighbouring house, seeing a crowd of people under her windows, called the on duty unit of the Stavropol UVD (Interior Department) and reported about an alleged unauthorized rally. An on duty outfit of the patrol-and-post service (PPS) arrived; however, after talking with the organizer of the action Vasily Basov, they quickly left, and even took pictures with ecologists," said Ponomarenko.

The journalist Nika Kakobyan, another participant of the action, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the gathered garbage comprised mainly empty beer and soft drink bottles and polyethylene bags.

After the action, activists hung posters on trees: "Bring to garbage bin! At any cost!", "Teach good manners to your children", "Small victory for you! Great victory for mankind!", "Internet is against littering, and you?" and others.

Vasily Basov has explained by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that in total on September 8 in Northern Caucasus similar actions took place in four cities - apart from Stavropol, in Vladikavkaz, Karabulak and Grozny.