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.

Standing in front of the forest, the president explained the decision came as a result of the massive number of requests sent to him by everyone from the ruling United Russia Party to opposition parties and environmental groups.

Activists had hailed the decision earlier in the day by United Russia and Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov to call on the president to halt the construction.

“I’m dumbfounded! This is tremendous!” was the initial reaction from Yevgenia Chirikova, leader of the movement in defense of the forest. “I’m very glad that the party United Russia has heard the voice of the people. We appealed to all parties about this problem. I think that the decision by United Russia has to do with the fact that saw the amount of people who are outraged by the felling of the forest.”

As the BBC reports:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the suspension of controversial plans to build a new motorway through a forest outside Moscow.

Mr Medvedev said construction of the road from the capital to St Petersburg, via the Khimki forest, would be halted until a public hearing had been held.

The decision came after appeals from environmental groups and, surprisingly, the governing United Russia party.

On Sunday, some 2,000 people attended a concert to protest against the road.

Environmentalists say there several options for the route to bypass the forest, which they say is a unique ecosystem that is home to centuries-old oak trees and many species of wildlife.

In a message posted on his video blog on Thursday, Mr Medvedev said he had ordered the suspension because “our people, from the governing United Russia party to united opposition groups to circles of experts, are saying this demands more analysis”.

“Considering the number of appeals, I have taken the following decision: I order the government to halt the implementation of the orders to build the road in question and hold additional public and expert discussions.”

Earlier, the party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made an unprecedented appeal to the president to halt the project.

“United Russia has turned to the president of Russia… with the request to halt the construction of the highway through the Khimki forest,” chairman Boris Gryzlov said in a statement.

“We have different opinions within United Russia about this question. But the situation does not look simple.

“We think that it is necessary to carefully deal with the question and accordingly either change the route of the construction of the road or continue the work taking account of a deeper study of this question.”

The announcement was welcomed by the Union of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations.

“This is our victory,” spokesman Andrei Morgulyov told Associated Press news agency. “This decision would have never happened if we were not fighting for our cause.”

The event is planned to be held on August 22 on Pushkin Square, and the mayor’s office had initially agreed to the event. However, a press release from the mayor’s office on Thursday stated that the organizers had only submitted the paperwork to hold a rally, not a concert.

Organizer Mikhail Shneyder was told by the city’s bureau for event management and safety that there’s no way to hold a rally and a concert at the same time. “You’re announcing all over the place that you’re holding a rally-concert, but that kind of format for an event does not exist. You will not be allowed to hold a concert and set up a covered stage,” Shneyder quoted the bureau as saying.

“I know that that kind of format doesn’t exist,” the organizer explained in response. “The law stipulates just a rally, but it’s for us to decide who is going to appear at our rally and how; if we want, we’ll call on a Buddhist and he’ll arrange 20 simultaneous chess matches.”

Regardless of any legal ambiguities, the organizers plan to go on with the show. Scheduled to be present are the groups DDT, OtZvuki My, Televizor, Padla Bear Outfit, and Barto. Journalist Artemy Troitsky agreed to host the event.

Yury Shevchuk, leader of DDT and an outspoken Kremlin critic, said the band had already purchased tickets to Moscow and was coming to the event for certain.

“Leap frog between the Moscow authorities – that’s a normal affair,” Shevchuk told Kasparov.ru. “We’re going to Moscow with an acoustic lineup and we’ll see there whether or not they’re going to let us play. That’s the kind of weather we have nowadays – either hot or cold.”

Yevgenia Chirikova, leader of the movement to defend the Khimki Forest, insisted that the Moscow authorities had no legal right to ban their event. “I don’t know a single law that would ban setting up a stage for a rally. The authorities’ quibbles are entirely baseless,” she said.

“Let them not allow the people to hear Shevchuk and demonstrate to everyone that they are inflexible and unpopular politicians,” the activist went on. “We have been supported by musicians of the very highest caliber, and a smart civil servant wouldn’t think to bother us.”

The felling of the Khimki Forest began this past July. An expressway from Moscow to St. Petersburg is planned to take its place. Ecologists and activists have spoken out strongly against the project, insisting that it violates the law.

The local electoral commission claims that some of the people who donated to Chirikova’s campaign did not include their full passport information and citizenship in the official forms.  The candidate maintains that all the information was correctly written.

In an interview with the Russian News Service, Chirikova said the Khimki administration was simply trying to prevent an independent candidate from running in the election.

Oleg Mitov one of Russia’s best know environmentalists and the deputy head of Russia’s environmental protection agency, said the reasons given for Chirikova’s removal were “ludicrous and contrived.”

Chirikova pledged to appeal the decision in court.  She is also starting to worry about her security, and has turned to police and asked for their protection.  According to Chirikova, she started receiving death threats after attorney Stanislav Markelov was killed.  The attorney, who was a prominent human rights defender and had worked with Khimki environmentalists, was gunned down in central Moscow on January 19th.

Other activists who spoke out against city officials in Khimki have also been threatened and attacked.  Mikhail Beketov, the editor-in-chief of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, was attacked and brutally beaten on November 14th. Beketov was a staunch opponent of a proposed Moscow-St. Petersburg superhighway, which would have destroyed a pristine stretch of recreational forest in Khimki.  Beketov had worked closely with Chirikova and remains in critical condition.