The Lago-Naki plateau is under threat again: exposed crimes are being erased to enable a new assault on the protected reserve

An absolutely extraordinary place of wild nature, a stunning refuge for animals and plants, the protected Lago-Naki plateau is once again in serious danger. For many years now, it has been targeted for destruction in the name of profit — big business is forcing its way onto protected lands, while regional authorities are covering commercial interests by any means, justifying the urgent need to destroy this natural refuge. You and I have long taken part in the defense of Lago-Naki, and thanks to public outcry, the active work of the plateau’s defenders, and scientists, it was possible some time ago to stop the ongoing destruction. Moreover, truly criminal and organized actions by the authorities and business interests were uncovered: they falsified state expert assessments, tried in violation of the law to pass dangerous bills legalizing the destruction of Lago-Naki, and obstructed society in its struggle for nature.

Unfortunately, I received a letter from our allies defending the plateau, and the situation around Lago-Naki has once again entered an acute phase. I was informed that this is now no longer only an environmental conflict over the construction of an all-season mountain resort, but also a possible attempt to weaken or effectively shut down the prosecutorial and judicial proceedings previously initiated over the revealed violations. If this is confirmed, the consequences will go beyond a single region, because the issues at stake include the legality of the state expert review, the status of protected natural territories, Russia’s compliance with its international obligations, and the permissibility of political and administrative pressure on law enforcement.

To begin with, let me remind you that truly criminal collusion around the protected plateau had already been uncovered, and after active public efforts, criminal cases were opened among other things. Even members of parliament became involved; for example, State Duma deputy Oleg Mikhailov sent a demand to the Prosecutor’s Office of Krasnodar Krai to stop the crimes being committed. After that, he received a response stating that criminal case No. 12501030001000904 had been initiated under Part 1 of Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. 

The document states that the preliminary investigation established that employees of PV Avangard-Proekt LLC had inserted false information into documents on the basis of which a technical report on the results of engineering and environmental surveys was prepared, and then a positive state expert review conclusion for the project documentation was obtained from the FAI “Glavgosexpertiza of Russia.” In other words, this is specifically about a fraudulent state expert review designed to seize a protected area.

It was precisely this circumstance that became the turning point, because this concerns a defect in the entire state expert review procedure, through which not only environmentally dangerous projects pass, but also strategic facilities, as well as transport, defense, and cultural infrastructure facilities. How can anyone now trust Glavgosexpertiza if everything is falsified in the interests of the authorities and big business? This is outright deception.

So, the prosecutor’s office was working on the problem, everything that society had been saying was confirmed, and the destruction of the plateau was temporarily halted. But in March 2026, the situation spiraled out of control again — this time, apparently having found powerful support “at the top,” the lobbyists behind the destruction of Lago-Naki are trying to CANCEL all previously uncovered crimes.

I will not rewrite the appeal of our allies; I will simply provide the full comment of Valery Brinikh, chairman of the council of the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation:

“Dear friends, allies! In March, two events occurred that gave us no cause for optimism. On Monday, March 16, the Maikop City Court concluded the рассмотрение моего иска по оспариванию строительства полигона ТКО возле станицы Кужорская Майкопского района в границах водосборной площади Майкопского месторождения подземных пресных вод.

Judge I.Kh. Stash denied my claim, justifying the decision by saying that my arguments did not meet the requirements of relevance and admissibility, and therefore were not evidence in the case, while I had refused a court-appointed expert examination. Judge I.Kh. Stash concluded that the findings of the state environmental expert review could only be refuted by the results of a judicial expert examination appointed by the court, and therefore my arguments did not constitute evidence of the unlawfulness of the defendants’ actions.

In reality, in my opinion, the judge simply found a pretext to justify refusing my claim in some way, because he most likely received such an order from someone he could not refuse. Especially considering that among the many interested parties in the construction of yet another landfill near Maikop is the leadership of the Republic of Adygea, represented by the omnipresent Kumpilov.

I will prepare an appeal against this decision of the Maikop City Court, and in the meantime I suggest reading the decision itself (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmlqnqO13jjUjuh7YniRnAjG6UDJX7Wb/view?usp=sharing). To make it easier to follow, the text of the decision sets out my claims from the beginning through page 17, and from page 24 to the end it lays out the court’s reasoning for denying my claims.

The second event occurred on March 31. On that day, another hearing took place in the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Adygea on the claim of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Adygea against FAI ‘Glavgosexpertiza of Russia’ seeking to have declared unlawful the positive state expert review conclusion for the construction project of the Upper Village of the all-season mountain resort ‘Lagonaki.’

It turns out that in Moscow, the issue is currently being decided between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation regarding the conclusion of a settlement agreement in this case. Apparently, the forces interested in building the resort on the Lago-Naki plateau are pressuring the Prosecutor General’s Office so that it resolves the matter and turns a blind eye to the numerous flaws in the project uncovered by our republican prosecutor’s office.

A settlement agreement essentially means abandoning most of the claims in favor of starting construction of the resort as quickly as possible. Since the settlement agreement is not yet ready, Judge V.S. Eremeev of the Arbitration Court of the Republic of Adygea decided to postpone the hearing until May 7, when, as he hopes, the draft settlement agreement will be ready.”

The first issue discussed here concerns a different problem, while the second issue concerns the Lago-Naki plateau itself. On March 31, 2026, it became known that the Government of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation were deciding the issue of concluding a “settlement agreement” on the claim of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Adygea.

Do you even understand what is happening? This is sheer surrealism: a CRIME was committed against the state — namely, the falsification of State Expert Review documents — and the reputation of the country’s main expert review institution has been put under attack. We are talking about a crime against wildlife, a systemic falsification, and now “backroom deals” are being made to bury this scandal and arrive at some kind of “settlement agreement”?

How is that possible?

I repeat: HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!!!

There is a criminal case concerning forged documents and the falsification of information in the interests of big business. And yet there is talk of a “settlement agreement”? This is not a commercial dispute between two private persons; this is about the legality of an act, a conclusion, a decision, or the action of a public body. And we are being told that legality can easily be replaced by a “compromise”?

A FALSE FACTUAL BASIS has been created for the destruction of a protected reserve of global importance, and let me remind you that the Lago-Naki plateau is part of the UNESCO World Heritage list. The authorities are now simply pretending that nothing happened and openly proposing to “close the dispute and leave everything as it is.”

This is a direct contradiction of the law, namely Part 3 of Article 139 and Part 6 of Article 141 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation: contradiction of the law and violation of the rights and lawful interests of other persons, including an indefinite circle of persons and the public interest in environmental protection.

If there are signs of forgery, official misconduct, negligence, or falsification of materials, they must be assessed within the framework of criminal proceedings or pre-investigation review according to their own rules. And if this arbitration “settlement” now becomes an AMNESTY and creates immunity from criminal liability, then this practice will spread across the entire country — they will brazenly falsify expert reviews, destroy protected reserves, and then conclude “settlement agreements” with themselves.

Separately, the defenders of the Lago-Naki plateau have now prepared and sent an appeal to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, asking for help in investigating the unlawful removal of land from the reserve in the interests of big business. Why the Minister of Foreign Affairs? Because this issue concerns a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I will publish it in full below.

File Study the document (PDF) 647

What should be done?

Please spread this information as widely as possible; at this point, real public outcry is almost the only thing that still works. Your voices are capable of moving these issues and forcing solutions.

For our part, we will try to push this problem through our allies in government as far as possible. I also know that many people who read me have the ability to influence such issues from within the system — get involved. Your help is needed.

What is under threat now is no longer only Lago-Naki — it is the law itself, the very idea of law: if uncovered violations, signs of forgery, and the work of the regional prosecutor’s office can be “erased” by some backroom agreement, then the law in Russia CEASES TO FUNCTION and becomes an instrument of one-sided force. 

Recommended for further reading: 

• The prosecutor’s office and society against the destruction of the Lago-Naki plateau: the work of regional prosecutors
• Rospotrebnadzor confirmed radioactive contamination of the Lago-Naki plateau

© PAVEL PASHKOV