Members of the Socialist Party held a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Dublin on Monday in response to the growing persecution of environmentalists, human rights activists, trade unionists and peaceful protesters inRussia.
A major French construction company, Vinci, supported by the Russian government, is in the process of cutting down a section of the Khimkinskii Forest, part of Moscow’s green belt, in order to facilitate the building of a major new road. Following a peaceful protest in the centre of Moscow against this environmental destruction, a group of 15 thugs viciously assaulted three Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) members, hospitalising two of them and seriously injuring one.
Attacks and serious infringements upon the rights of peaceful protesters in Russia are becoming increasingly and depressingly frequent, and this incident comes shortly after police stood by and tolerated the violent destruction by fascist thugs of an environmentalist protest camp in the Khimkinskii Forest. The lack of action by the Russian police shows the willingness of the Russian authorities to let the far-right intimidate and assault protesters in order to serve their own ends. A letter of protest on behalf of the Socialist Party making clear our opposition to these actions was handed to an embassy official by Joe Higgins MEP.
The Socialist Party stands in solidarity with our Russian comrades in the CWI in calling for an end to: the persecution of protesters and anti fascists; the use by the state and big business of violent thugs against peaceful protesters; and the destruction of Russia’s forests and green belts in the interests of big business and the elite.
