According to movement member Sergei Ageyev, ten environmentalists held an “exchange of information” with Posner at the house of activist Konstantin Fetisov in the outer-Moscow village of Gavrilkovo.

During the discussion, the movement’s leader, Yevgenia Chirikova, told Posner about their work to save the forest from a dubious highway construction project, and also brought to his attention attacks on activsts – including Fetisov – and multiple other human rights abuses by members of the project’s private security forces.

Chirikova made particular note that French contractor Vinci, party to the UN agreement on principles of business conduct, is involved in the project. Correspondingly, she said, the company is violating the UN agreement by taking part in a construction project that has involved multiple human rights violations.

In sum, Chirikova told Posner that the highway was an international project “that, by the way, is violating human rights,” and that the US should “react” to everything that happens around the Khimki Forest because Russia is a country that is “struggling for human rights and democracy.”

As part of his visit to Russia, Posner spoke on Ekho Moskvy Radion on October 12 and noted that the US generally blocks entry through its borders to anyone involved in demonstrated human rights abuses.

On Tuesday, federal investigators said that Andrei Chernyshev, who heads Khimki’s department on public property and privatization, was arrested under suspicion of organizing Fetisov’s attack. Criminal investigators also detained 25-year-old Vyacheslav Kovalev and 28-year-old Andrei Kashirin, who are suspected of having carried out the attack.

Earlier in the day, RIA Novosti reported that a total of four figures had been detained in connection with Fetisov’s beating. The day before, reports surfaced that police had conducted searches in Khimki administrative buildings. While the Investigative Committee confirmed this information, the Khimki administration itself denied that any searches had occurred.

Konstantin Fetisov, leader of the Khimki branch of the Right Cause party and a staunch supporter of the preservation of the Khimki Forest, was attacked by unknown assailants on November 4. Repeated blows to the head from a baseball bat caused him to fall into a coma. On December 27, his wife, Marina Fetisova, reported that his condition was improving; Fetisov is now in “a state of deep stupor,” meaning he is not in a coma but basically does not respond to external stimuli.

The activists and ecologists who fought with Fetisov to preserve the Khimki Forest say the attack was clearly connected to his civic activities. Days after the attack, journalist Oleg Kashin, who had dedicated a significant amount of coverage to the Khimki Forest controversy, was also beaten nearly to death by two unknown men. An investigation is still ongoing.