By Mark Trevelyan
LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Plans to build a church in honour of Russia’s war dead in a riverside park in the southern city of Krasnodar have sparked a rare protest by local people, who publicly appealed to President Vladimir Putin to prevent it from going ahead.
Video posted online showed a resident reading the appeal to a large crowd, who chanted their approval.
The message urged Putin to preserve the park in the Yubileiny district, next to the Kuban river, as a green space for their children and grandchildren to enjoy.
“We are not against religion. We are in favour of the law,” it said. “The authorities are not listening to us. We are forced to shout. Yubileiny is against this development.”
It was not clear when the public meeting took place. Protests of any kind are rare in Russia, which has intensified a clampdown on virtually all forms of dissent since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Authorities have said the planned church will be dedicated to “the heroes of the special military operation”, the term by which the Kremlin refers to the war. But the war link was not the focus of people’s objections.
Alexander Safronov, a Communist member of the local parliament, said: “Residents are not opposed to the church in principle, but they do not want the embankment to be developed.”
Spas, a conservative religious TV channel, has said Krasnodar needs more churches and has attacked the opponents of the project as “raving Communists”.
Safronov said the channel had poured “lies and filth” on the protesters, but this had only increased their number.
The issue sparked lively discussion in a Krasnodar chatroom on Russian social network VK, with some residents complaining that there were more than enough churches in the city already.
“Prayers alone won’t fix what is happening in this country,” one person posted.
(Reporting by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Gareth Jones)
