Ecologists assessed the possibility of a connection between the case against Matveev and pressure on "Ecowatch".

The Council of the "Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus" excluded Denis Matveev from the organization after his arrest. However, although the case against Matveev is not related to environmental activities, it has been used for negative publications about the organization, whose activities irritate the authorities and security forces, believes the coordinator of "Ecowatch". The terrorism charges against Matveev have become a reason for hate against the organization, analysts agreed.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", more than a month after the arrest of the "Ecowatch for the North Caucasus" activist Denis Matveev, the FSB department for the Krasnodar Territory announced a case against him. The security forces claim that Matveev confessed to distributing articles of an anti-Russian nature at the request of a pro-Ukrainian terrorist organization. The court arrested the "Ecowatch for the North Caucasus" activist Denis Matveev due to correspondence in support of Ukraine; he had previously been searched. A criminal case has been initiated against Matveev for organizing or participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, sources reported.

The coordinator of "Ecowatch for the North Caucasus" Andrey Rudomakha issued a statement regarding Matveev's detention and the wide publicity of this case. He believes that this is an element of another campaign against the "Ecological Watch for the North Caucasus" and has a "bad commissioned odor".

"Although Denis Matveev was arrested a long time ago — on August 19 or 20, commands to 'take down' 'Ecowatch' were only given now. Meanwhile, on August 22, an emergency meeting of the Council of 'Ecological Watch' took place, at which Matveev was unanimously excluded from the organization. When military actions are underway, any interaction with organizations participating in the war against the country of which you are a citizen is unacceptable. For such actions, Matveev would be prosecuted in any country in the world," Rudomakha stated.

According to him, the new wave of the information campaign against "Ecowatch" is likely backed by the regional FSB department of Russia.

"This agency has long been trying to hinder the activities of our organization. Over the past ten years, we have gone through numerous searches on completely fabricated grounds with the seizure of equipment and documents, and administrative cases have been initiated against me and the organization out of thin air — one of them was mentioned above. I believe this was previously caused by the fact that, fighting against certain objects that were built in violation of the law, we inadvertently touched the personal interests of certain management leaders — for example, the former head of the department for constitutional order protection and counter-terrorism, whose houses appeared on land allocated for construction in violation of the law.

Through the publication "Yuga.ru", he appealed to the new head of the FSB of Russia for the Krasnodar Territory, Leonid Mikhailyuk, requesting a meeting. The ecologist also asked the head of the department to investigate the actions of subordinates, who, just like under the previous leadership, in Rudomakha's opinion, instead of ensuring state security, begin to suppress the activities of the environmental public organization.

Another ecologist from the Krasnodar Territory believed that Matveev's case is unlikely to be directly related to the activities of Ecowatch. "Matveev's case is related to the general background in the country, so to speak," he told a correspondent of "Caucasian Knot" on condition of anonymity.

The head of the Sova Research Center* Alexander Verkhovsky pointed out the scarcity of information regarding both Matveev's case and Reutt's.

"We know nothing. We do not know whether Reutt was actually involved in the explosion. We do not know what materials Matveev distributed and which organization is involved in his case," he stated.

According to a human rights activist, the hate campaign against "Ecowatch" is quite expected.

"Ecowatch has obviously long been a target for many. It would even be strange if local officials did not take advantage of such an opportunity," Verkhovsky believes.

In his statement, Rudomakha also noted that Denis Matveev, before his exclusion, was an ordinary member of "Ecological Watch" and did not make any decisions within it. "Denis is a talented self-taught botanist and nature researcher. He was born and raised in Tuapse, spent a lot of time in the wild since childhood, and knew plants well. He joined the organization in 2010 when we conducted a public campaign against the launch of the terminal of the company 'Eurochem' in Tuapse. Given his knowledge, we involved Denis in field surveys that the organization conducts to create new specially protected natural areas (SPNAs) and green zones for public use. There is no connection between the actions for which he was arrested and the activities of 'Ecological Watch'," he emphasized.

* included by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in the register of foreign agents.

** the activities of the Meta company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.