In Sevastopol, they are again arguing about the future of the site where the Night Wolves bike shows were held.
The Russian Ministry of Defense intends to invest 3 billion rubles in the construction of the Patriot Park near Mount Gasforta near Sevastopol. The project is opposed by the former “people's mayor” of Sevastopol Alexey Chaly and his associates.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
Public discussions took place during public hearings in Balaklava and the village of Orlinoe. They resulted in a skirmish between support groups of both points of view. The “Night Wolves” motorcycle club, which has been holding popular bike shows on the disputed site for 8 years, has “fit in” with the Ministry of Defense.
The Patriot Park project was presented by Deputy Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Yuri Orekhovsky.
He said that it is planned to create three clusters in the Gasfort area: military-patriotic, sports-training and tourist-recreational. The total area of the park will be about 300 hectares, and it will be able to accommodate up to 15 thousand visitors during events.
In particular, the concept of the park provides for the creation on its territory of a museum of young heroes, a branch of the Russian Sports Museum, training centers, sites for military-patriotic games, a center for passing the GTO and other sports facilities; it is planned to locate an educational center, a cinema and concert hall and much more. According to Orekhovsky, most of the facilities will be focused specifically on military-patriotic education.
Alexey Chaly said that he was not convinced by the project. He expressed concern that construction would lead to the destruction of nature, and recalled that the lake under the mountain is a reserve reservoir that Sevastopol uses in dry years.
“How will we do this when there is a beach and a diving station there? Until the issue of water supply to Sevastopol is resolved, it is in principle incorrect to talk about the location of this facility,” Chaly said.
He doubted that the park was being created for military-patriotic education, because, according to the project, there would be 10 times more places to accommodate adults than children.
“Where are these children? How many will be accepted? This document does not contain any obligations towards the residents of Sevastopol - neither from the point of view of taxes, nor from the point of view of patriotic education itself. There’s something unclean here,” Chaly said.
His comrades proposed to the military to create a park on their territory - on the basis of the military camp of the 30th coastal battery in the village of Lyubimovka. This is a legendary battery that went down in the history of the defense of Sevastopol under the name of its commander Georgy Alexander.
Almost all Sevastopol media take a biased position on the Patriot Park issue, which depends on whether they support Alexey Chaly in principle or not.
At the same time, anyone who passes by Mount Gasforta (and it is located right next to the highway to Yalta) will be convinced that this area needs improvement.
40 years ago there was a lovely vacation spot, beloved by the people of Sevastopol. However, in the 70s, the Balaklava Mining Administration received permission to mine fluxes. The mountain was half demolished before local environmentalists managed to prove that mining could deprive Sevastopol of water and radically change the climate in the city.
Development was stopped, industrial buildings were abandoned, and the area became an unsightly quarry open to a busy tourist route. This went on for 20 years, until the Night Wolves decided to use the abandoned buildings for their own purposes.
During the Ukrainian years, Sevastopol residents (including Chaly’s entourage) ardently supported the bike show of the leader of the Night Wolves, the Surgeon (Alexander Zaldostanov). Biker parties had a clearly patriotic, pro-Russian character and attracted thousands of spectators. Vladimir Putin even visited there once.
The situation changed in 2015, when then-governor Sergei Menyailo leased a plot of land near the mountain to the Night Wolves for the creation of a youth patriotic park. The city legislative assembly, led by Alexei Chaly, opposed this, citing its position by the fact that significant areas are being transferred to motorcyclists without any development project and without discussion with the townspeople.
Around the same time, the Agency for Strategic Development of Sevastopol, created by Chaly, presented its project for the development of the territory near Gasfort, which was developed before the land was given to the Night Wolves. The talk was about creating an intercepting tourist town with a park for family recreation. It was assumed that guests of Sevastopol would be able to stay there, and they would get to the city by monorail.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.