MOSCOW -- Construction was halted on a new seven-storey hotel in Moscow's Patriarch's Ponds district after protests, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Public Coalition to Defend Moscow activist Sergei Udaltsov of the Left Front movement told RFE/RL that construction workers started removing their portable lockers and offices from the building site on October 27.
Udaltsov said the construction equipment and machinery would start being removed on October 28.
A building inspection revealed on October 25 that the company building the hotel does not have the necessary documentation for the construction.
The standoff between the workers and activists began last week. On October 25, the protesters began around-the-clock monitoring of the construction site. Then, on October 26, police detained five protestors for "illegally trespassing on the building site."
Several 19th-century buildings have been demolished to clear the way for the construction.
The Patriarch's Ponds district of Moscow features prominently in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita."
Public Coalition to Defend Moscow activist Sergei Udaltsov of the Left Front movement told RFE/RL that construction workers started removing their portable lockers and offices from the building site on October 27.
Udaltsov said the construction equipment and machinery would start being removed on October 28.
A building inspection revealed on October 25 that the company building the hotel does not have the necessary documentation for the construction.
The standoff between the workers and activists began last week. On October 25, the protesters began around-the-clock monitoring of the construction site. Then, on October 26, police detained five protestors for "illegally trespassing on the building site."
Several 19th-century buildings have been demolished to clear the way for the construction.
The Patriarch's Ponds district of Moscow features prominently in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita."
