moscow authorities raze forests to deploy air defense systems – The Insider

After the New Year, Moscow authorities started deforestation, in particular, cutting down trees in the national park "Losinyi Ostrov."

According to The Insider, vacated areas will be provided for the needs of the Ministry of Defense, particularly for the placement of anti-aircraft systems there.

Thus, in the Kuryanovo micro-district, a forest massif with an area of about 100 hectares was secretly destroyed. Asphalt was installed: there will be ten platforms, and at least one will be equipped with air defense systems.

About 100 hectares of forest were cut down in the protected zone of the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve in the Pechatniki district of the city for the needs of the russian military. The Church of the Ascension, located there, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Now local residents fear that it will be excluded from this list.

Another area was cut down in Izmailov Park, the largest city park in Europe. The Insider assumes that air defense systems will also be installed there.

Also, the S-400 air defense system was placed on the territory of the national park "Losynyi Ostrov. The distance from the air defense system to residential high-rise buildings is roughly 200 meters. The defense system was deployed despite the park being considered a territory with nature to be specially protected.

And the air defense system was placed at the Salaryevo landfill, which as of 2013, was the largest in Europe.

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As early as January, footage of air defense systems installed in moscow and near the city was distributed online. In particular, air defense complexes were spotted on the buildings of the Ministry of Defense of the russian federation and near the residence of vladimir putin.

Later, Bloomberg, citing officials familiar with the situation, wrote that these air defense systems were decided to be deployed after drone attacks on russian military airfields in the Saratov and Ryazan regions. The systems were also spotted near the stadium in moscow, where vladimir putin was making a speech.