Krasnodar Farmers Head to Moscow in Tractor Protest Convoy

Krasnodar Farmers Head to Moscow in Tractor Convoy
Olga Nadykto
RBC
August 21, 2018

Farmers from Krasnodar Territory have set off on tractors to Moscow. The total number of tractors in the convoy is seventeen. This is the second attempt by the farmers of Kuban to organize a “tractor march” on Moscow

The Krasnodar farmers’ tractor convoy has left for Moscow, Vasily Melnichenko, one of the protesters, reported on his Twitter account.

Before the convoy set off, the farmers held a rally in the village of Kazanskaya in the Kavkazsky District of Krasnodar Territory. As reported by Novaya Gazeta, after the rally was over, a convoy of seventeen tractors and a few dozen cars headed for the neighboring Rostov Region on the federal highway. The newspaper reported that protesters intend to meet with federal authorities in Moscow.

As a co-organizer of the tractor convoy, Alexei Volchenko, earlier told Krestyanskie Vedomosti (Peasant Gazette), the protest has been coordinated with the traffic police.

“There was moaning and groaning, and nerves were on edge, but we got the traffic police to sign off on the tractor convoy. They promised an escort, as the rules says they should,” said Volchenko.

According to Volchenko, the farmers are protesting the violation of their property rights and transfer of land to major agricultural holding companies.

The farmers of Kuban had initially tried to carry out a tractor convoy to Moscow in March of this year. Around a hundred farmers from nine districts in Krasnodar Territory announced plans to drive their tractors to Moscow, where they intended to deliver a petition to Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the farmers later declined to carry out the protest.

Translated by the Russian Reader