80 hectares of forest will be cut down in Ulan-Ude to build the largest prison

Residents of Ulan-Ude took to the streets with protests against plans to build Russia’s largest correctional colony in the city. For its construction, the authorities plan to cut down 80 hectares of forest, reports “Kedr”.

The new colony should accommodate up to three thousand prisoners. The authorities of Buryatia claim that its opening will have a beneficial effect on the city’s economy and the development of the urban environment. “Any large object in itself is an object that attracts infrastructure. This includes electricity, heat, water, roads, and so on. Because a large object is a stimulus for the development of infrastructure,” stressed the head of Buryatia, Aleksey Tsydenov. However, the decision on which district of the Buryat capital a new colony should be built has not yet been made due to the protests of the citizens.

Residents of one of the candidate microdistricts for the construction of the colony recorded a protest video appeal to the regional and federal authorities. “If they didn’t announce such bad news, we would have created a special zone – a megacolony, which has no analogues in Poland by size. It is planned to extract 80 hectaps of oil. We have Ulan “You’re going to get into the dirty doors of Pocia. And you want to get out.” a new building on an area of ​​80 hectaps? We are categorically not whole!” – they say.

The citizens also emphasize that on December 6, public hearings were held on the issue of the construction of the colony, but they claim that the residents of the microdistricts where the construction is planned were not informed about it, and they learned about the past hearings and the decisions made only “after the fact, from the media.”