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- Protected areas and the difference: illegal road caused damage to Sochi National Park by 270 million rubles
Protected areas and the difference: illegal road caused damage to Sochi National Park by 270 million rubles
The damage from the road, which the staff of the Sochi National Park illegally laid for the export of wood, amounted to almost 270 million rubles, Izvestia found out. The examination, which confirmed the damage, formed the basis of the criminal case, which the court began to consider. The defendants in this case are the former heads of the National Park and the Caucasian Nature Reserve, Vladimir Atoyan and Vladimir Titov. According to the environmentalists, who succeeded in instituting a criminal case, they did not interfere with the work and tried to hide its consequences. The defendants became the head of a specially protected natural area immediately after the dismissal of the previous director, Sergei Shevelea, in January 2026. At that time, inspections by the prosecutor's office revealed violations of 3 billion rubles in the institutions entrusted to him.
Road damage
The damage during the construction of the road in the Lygotkhsky forestry in the territory of the Sochi National Park amounted to almost 270 million rubles. These are the results of an expert examination conducted by specialists of the Sochi Geographical Society at the request of the investigative Department of the Department of Internal Affairs for the city of Sochi, Alexander Zobnin, head of the CDF, told Izvestia.
— We were involved in the investigation of damage caused by unauthorized construction of the road. She passed through the protected area, also damaging the protected area of the monument of the Bronze Age. The road was made for the export of wood, which was allegedly necessary for the organization of a recreational facility — a suspension bridge over the river. It was built without anyone's approval. We have estimated the damage at 268.8 million rubles. This includes spoiling the fertile soil layer and cutting down trees," the ecologist said.
According to him, these calculations coincide with the results of another examination of the same object, conducted at the request of the prosecutor's office by specialists of the Federal Forestry Agency.
These documents have been included in the criminal case, which is currently being considered by the Lazarevsky District Court. The defendants in the case are the former heads of the Sochi National Park, Vladimir Atoyan, and the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve, Vladimir Titov. They are accused of abuse of office. They took up their positions after their head, Sergey Shevelev, resigned from both directorships on January 21, 2026. Izvestia previously wrote about numerous violations in his work, which caused damage in the amount of about 3 billion rubles, revealed as a result of an audit by the prosecutor's office.
At the time of the construction of that very road in the forest, Vladimir Atoyan was Sergey Shevelev's deputy for territory protection in the national park, and Vladimir Titov was deputy for legal affairs. Murat Heikhsho, the forester of the Lygotkhsky forestry, was directly involved in laying the object. Atoyan and Titov first acted as witnesses at the trial, and then became defendants in a separate criminal case.
— As far as I know, Atoyan underestimated the damage during this construction and counted only a few thousand rubles. He is accused of this, and Titov's role is unknown to me. Both of them spent several days in jail, but then they were released. Vladimir Titov is currently under house arrest. Vladimir Atoyan is deprived of the right to use a telephone and equipment," said Alexander Zobnin.
Export of wood from protected areas to a sawmill
Former employees of the national park drew attention to the suspicious construction site. In May 2025, residents of Kalezh village, located in the area, handed over photos and videos to Elena Bogacheva, the former chief specialist of the national park's internal control department. They show that many trees have been cut down in the protected area, there are deep muddy ditches and traces of tracked vehicles.
Bogacheva told Izvestia that Murat Heikhsho, a forester, had organized the illegal work using a tractor belonging to the national park. He took the fallen chestnut and oak trees in Ural official cars to his own sawmill on the territory of the Aurora boarding house. She described all this in a statement to the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Department of Internal Affairs of Sochi dated August 21, 2025.
"These actions took place, as I assume, under the cover of the leaders of the national park: acting director of the institution Shevelev S.G., his deputies Atoyan V.I., Titov V.R. As a result of large-scale environmental violations in protected areas: uprooting trees, damage to the upper soil layer during the laying of new fibers, wood skidding using a tractor Heisho M.Yu. caused significant environmental damage," the statement said.
Another former employee of the Sochi National Park, Yuri Kremer, also appealed to law enforcement agencies with a statement about an illegal road.
— Heyshko claimed that he had a government order to lay a 1.3 km road. But no one has seen the documents for this. And he walked on a bulldozer, in my opinion, 7 or 8 kilometers. The district prosecutor, Anton Tishchenko, and I walked these eight kilometers with a tape measure in two days. This road had secondary passages to drag out the forest. The bulldozer went through and damaged the soil cover — the damage is enormous. And he sawed the forest. Atoyan gave permission,— Yuri Kremer told Izvestia.
As a result, after these appeals, a criminal case was opened into illegal logging, as indicated in the response of the Sochi Prosecutor's office dated December 12, 2025.
The park management knew perfectly well that the forester was taking the wood to the sawmill, Elena Bogacheva is sure. According to her information, this has been happening for several years. When the law enforcement agencies received a statement about this, Titov and Atoyan prepared documents stating that Heysho did this on the instructions of the leadership to clear the road. The papers were intended to conceal the damage.
— They responded to the police's request that no damage had been done to the park. And they falsified documents that the forester had sold the wood and returned the money to the national park. The local Department of Rosprirodnadzor also found no damage to nature. But then the commission of the Prosecutor General's Office arrived and involved specialists from the Federal Forestry Agency in the assessment. Then the checks continued, and a criminal case was opened. Atoyan, as deputy for the protection of territories, should have stopped the logging, but did nothing," Elena Bogacheva said.
According to her, the forester Heysho pleads not guilty at the trial and claims that he carried out the removal of dried trees on the instructions of the park management.
In response to an official request from Izvestia about the impact of logging on the protected area ecosystem, Sochi National Park reported: "No facts of material damage to the institution have been established." Vladimir Titov confirmed by phone that he had become a defendant in the trial.
— I am accused of abuse of office. The judge took the challenge. There is no review date yet. I haven't fully figured out what I'm being accused of yet," he said.
The Izvestia journalist also contacted Vladimir Atoyan by phone, but he refused to discuss the case.
Violations in the national park continue
The results of the inspection of the Sochi National Park and the Caucasus Nature Reserve by the Prosecutor General's Office were reported to Izvestia in December last year. Among the violations found are the construction of commercial infrastructure, mass felling of trees and waste storage. All this has been happening since 2023, when both specially protected natural areas were headed by Sergey Shevelev.
Thus, the materials of the prosecutor's office indicate that the administration of protected areas does not fight illegal logging in any way. The audit revealed 21 such facts with damage amounting to 1.3 billion rubles. In some cases, illegal logging was carried out by the park structures themselves, the documents say.
The issue of serious violations in the work of the Sochi National Park was raised on December 10, 2025 at a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects. Mikhail Kuznetsov, head of the Executive Committee of the Popular Front, told Russian President Vladimir Putin about these facts. On January 21, 2026, Shevelev resigned from both posts.
Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Alexander Gutsan
On April 15 of this year, the Prosecutor General of Russia, Alexander Gutsan, told the Federation Council about serious violations in the Sochi National Park. According to him, the inspections revealed a systematic disregard for restrictions on economic activity and the use of land in commercial interests. Among the most serious violations are the cutting down of green spaces, unauthorized seizure of land and illegal construction.
Izvestia sent a request for comment to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, which oversees Sochi National Park, and forwarded these questions to law enforcement agencies. The prosecutor's office and the Interior Ministry refrained from commenting until the end of the trial.
The main danger of deforestation, which has become the subject of legal proceedings, is not in the loss of specific trees, but in the imbalance of the entire ecosystem of a specially protected natural area, ecologist Artyom Akshintsev explained to Izvestia.
— The dissection of a protected area by a road is not only a direct threat, for example, to animals, but also a violation of the hydrological balance of groundwater. Heavy machinery puts pressure on the ground, which can lead to a redistribution of the surface layers of water. Therefore, to understand the danger, you need to look at the specific conclusion of the examination," the specialist said.
A forest is a complex ecosystem. Protected areas are created to maintain them, and if its parts are damaged, then it can all begin to degrade, Artyom Akshintsev emphasized.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
