The Supreme Court upheld activists' lawsuit against the felling of spruce trees in Rostov-on-Don.

The Supreme Court of Russia returned a lawsuit filed by activists regarding the illegal construction of a house on a spruce grove site in Rostov-on-Don to the appellate court; the lawyer called the decision a favorable outcome. Residents have been fighting to preserve the spruce trees on the site for several years.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot," in November 2023, Rostov activists demanded a halt to the felling of trees near Aviatorov Park in the Pervomaysky District. The site is privately owned and designated for individual housing construction. However, district authorities had previously notified the site owner that tree felling and construction were prohibited. The ban was announced following collective appeals from Rostov residents. Rostov-on-Don authorities reported that the logging was halted because it was carried out without permits, and that police were conducting an investigation. In May 2025, the Rostov Regional Court found inaction by officials who allowed trees to be cut down and construction to take place on a site near Aviatorov Park, and ordered the site to be restored to its original condition.

The Supreme Court heard a dispute over tree felling in Rostov-on-Don. A conflict between residents of a Rostov-on-Don district and a businesswoman trying to cut down a spruce grove for construction has been ongoing for several years, lawyer Irina Yakymiv, who represents the interests of Rostov-on-Don residents, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The area at the intersection of Zelenaya Street and Sholokhov Avenue, not far from the city's central bus station, was designated as a special-purpose green space according to the city's General Plan, she pointed out.

"However, in 2015, a certain Andrei Pern, then the head of the local aikido federation, contacted the city administration and requested this particular plot for individual housing construction, citing the presence of a disabled child in the family. At that time, the plot directly faced the M-4 "Don" federal highway (bypass roads were built later). Then, everything went quiet for six years, until an application was submitted to build a 39-square-meter house. Permits were granted, and then things went quiet again for two years. In early October 2023, the plot was transferred to Maria Tambieva, selling it for 9 million rubles, while Pern had sold it for 1 million. "At the time Pern's request for the land plot was granted, Andrei Tambiev was the head of the city's Department of Property and Land Relations," Yakymyv noted.

The court disagreed with the decision.

On April 24, Yakymyv reported, the Administrative Collegium of the Supreme Court announced its decision.

"The decisions of the appellate and cassation courts were overturned. However, the case was returned not to the trial court, but to the appellate court for a new hearing. "Therefore, the court did not agree that we should be denied," she stated. Yakymiv emphasized that she was confident of a favorable ruling because, upon arriving at the Rostov Regional Court, which, incidentally, is the appellate court for this case, where the verdict was broadcast live, she saw that the court's press service had been called into the courtroom. She also noted the gratitude of the representative of the Prosecutor General's Office, who was present at the hearing, to the "active citizens" who had made the documents on this case available to the prosecutor's office. A Rostov ecologist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that the trees on the disputed site were part of so-called special-purpose green spaces. "These are trees that are traditionally planted along major highways to screen noise, trap pollution, and so on," he told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Maria Tambieva declined to comment on the situation.

According to the case file on the Russian Supreme Court website, the lawsuit "to invalidate the decisions, actions (inactions) of the Rostov-on-Don Pervomaisky District Administration regarding the issuance of a notice of compliance of the facility with construction parameters, and the imposition of an obligation to take measures to recognize the construction as unauthorized," the decision on which was made today, was filed by 31 applicants, including Rostov-on-Don City Duma deputy Natalia Oskina. The defendants in the case were the administrations of Rostov-on-Don and the Pervomaisky District, the city's Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, and Andrey Pern and Maria Tambieva were brought in as third parties.