KHIMKI, Russia, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Police near Moscow say they arrested a fourth suspect in a baseball-bat attack on an environmental activist who opposed clear-cutting a forest for a highway.
The unidentified fourth person was allegedly involved in the brutal Nov. 4 attack on Konstantin Fetisov, an outspoken opponent of a plan to build an $8 billion highway linking Moscow and St. Petersburg that will bisect a large oak forest in Khimki, a suburb just northwest of Moscow, federal authorities said Thursday.
Environmentalists say the forest is a unique ecosystem that is home to centuries-old oak trees and many species of wildlife. They want the highway rerouted.
The project was given the go-ahead Dec. 14, three months after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev conceded to public opinion and ordered a temporary halt to construction, citing the need for further public discussion.
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Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Dec. 14 a new forest would be planted elsewhere to compensate for cutting down about 250 acres of the Khimki Forest.
The three suspects arrested Tuesday include Andrei Chernyshev, the head of the municipal property department, officials quoted by the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency said.
Fetisov, in a medically induced coma until a few days ago, was attacked two days before Oleg Kashin, a journalist with the influential Kommersant daily, was severely beaten by two men outside his home in Moscow, RIA Novosti said.
Kashin, voted Journalist of the Year by Russian bloggers, had also criticized the project and described Khimki as a haven for corruption and organized crime.
Another journalist, Mikhail Beketov, was attacked in 2008, leaving him brain-damaged and crippled. Beketov had scrutinized the affairs of Khimki's mayor.
