23:22, 9 December 2020

Moscow court dismisses lawsuit filed by 567 residents of Dagestan

Irganai Hydroelectric Power Plant. Photo: https://ru.wikipedia.org/

In Moscow, a court dismissed a collective lawsuit filed by residents of Dagestan who found themselves in the flooding zone after the Irganai Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) had been commissioned. Marina Agaltsova, who represents the plaintiffs' interests, has announced the intention to appeal against the court decision.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that a lawsuit against the inaction of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, as well as the government and the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Dagestan had been filed in November 2020. The claim is signed by 567 people who request the court to oblige officials to prepare as soon as possible the documents on payment of compensation, which villagers have been awaiting during 12 years already, the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" reported.

The construction of the Irganai HPP was completed in 2008, and after its launch, the gardens of local residents with the harvest, as well as houses and farmland were flooded. Residents of the villages in the flood zone had repeatedly held protest actions with the demand of compensation.

The Presnensky District Court of Moscow has dismissed the collective lawsuit filed by the victims of the flooding caused by the construction of the Irganai HPP, the "Kommersant" reports today with reference to the information from the court. The edition also notes that the court decision to dismiss the lawsuit was dated November 27.

The text of the court ruling will not be available at least until December 10, so the reasoning for the dismissal of the lawsuit is still not known, a correspondent of the "Kommersant" has learned from Marina Agaltsova, a lawyer of the HRC "Memorial", who represents the plaintiffs' interests.

According to Marina Agaltsova, without seeing the text of the court ruling, it is difficult to comment on it. "However, we will appeal against it in any case," emphasized the lawyer.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 9, 2020 at 06:25 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.