Environmental activist Yevgenia Chirikova was arrested after a press conference held at the Independent Media Centre in Moscow. Yevgenia Chirikova started her battle in 2007, when she created the environmental group Ecodefense, to protect the Khimki Forest Park from a motorway planned by the government.
She were accused of resisting the police during a police operation that took place on July 28, 2010 in the Khimki Forest camp.

After the interrogation, Chirikova was driven to the Khimki Court and, despite contradictory evidence from witnesses linked to the police, found guilty of "holding an unsanctioned rally" for which she was fined 1,500 rubles (about 38 euros). The same day, in another court trial, Yevgenia Chirikova was also found guilty of "resisting the police" and fined 800 rubles (about 20 euros). 

The camp set up by the environmental activists in the Khimki Forest has suffered several attacks. On July 23, 2010, 40 to 50 private security guards hired by the highway construction company and a gang of ultra-rightist hooligans assaulted the group. The Police, called by Yevgenia Chirikova did not intervene at first. Then, the OMON cops arrived on the spot and arrested seven activists instead of the attackers, as well as two journalists, Elena Kostyuchenko, from the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and Yuri Timoveyev, a reporter for Prague-based Radio Liberty, who were taken to a nearby police station. Elena Kostyuchenko sustained a neck injury as a result of violent blow at the time of arrest.