The unburied remains lie here of hundreds of thousands of fallen defenders of Leningrad, the majority of whom were classified as ‘missing in action’.

In a statement distributed on 16 January, the press bureau of the St Petersburg branch of the ‘Yabloko’ party says that: ‘This is not merely the crudest violation of federal legislation (of the laws ‘On burials and funerals’ and ‘On immortalisation of the memory of those killed while defending the Fatherland’). This is blasphemy and an insult to the memory of the fallen, to the emotions of all our city’s residents whose loved ones defended Leningrad. The city authorities’ intentions are especially cynical given that the decision to build the new rubbish dump was taken by the city authorities on the very eve of the 65th anniversary of the full liberation of Leningrad from the blockade (27 January 1944).

The first eight rubbish carriers unloaded their cargo on 11 January 2009. Meanwhile, as early as in 1978 by resolution of the Leningrad Regional Executive Committee, the territory of Siniavinskie Heights was declared a memorial zone, a resolution which was confirmed in 1982 by RSFSR Council of Ministers Order No. 303, and in 1995, by RF presidential decree No. 176’.

‘Yabloko’’s St Petersburg branch demands that the St Petersburg and Leningrad region authorities immediately cease works aimed at transforming the memorial zone into a gigantic rubbish dump; that an inspection of the battle sites on the territory be conducted as prescribed by the law; and everything possible be done to facilitate the identification and re-interment of the ashes of those killed defending Leningrad.