At the conference of the "Ecological Watch for Northern Caucasus" (EcoWatch), which was held on March 1 in Krasnodar, the members of the organization declared the campaign against the development of the SochiNational Park and the Caucasian Reserve, which had been awarded a special status, to be their priority for the next six months.
On February 9, the Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Kozak signed an order to the Russia's Ministries of Environment and of Economic Development, prescribing "to issue, before March 15, 2015, servitudes on the land plots as required for building ski resorts in execution of orders of the Government of the Russian Federation of January 20, 2015, No. DK-P13-208."
According to Vladimir Kimaev, an activist of the EcoWatch, the land plots mentioned in the Kozak's order, are virgin areas of the Caucasian Nature Reserve and SochiNational Park, the regime of which bans any economic activity in these areas.
"Dmitry Kozak, by using the powers entrusted to him, has simply converted into the format of a government's decision the requests of two commercial companies sent to him personally... These requests are at the disposal of the EcoWatch; and they are a bright example of what Russian statesmen are guided by, when they take their alleged 'governmental' decisions," said Vladimir Kimaev.