On January 8, demolition began in St. Petersburg at the former building of the All-Union Research Institute of the Pulp and Paper Industry at 49 2nd Murinsky Avenue, near Ploshchad Muzhestva. Heavy machinery was brought to the site, and dozens of local residents and preservation activists soon gathered there to try to stop the work. They chanted that the demolition was illegal and attempted to block the excavators.
Participants in the protest told the outlet Vetër that the site was also cordoned off by men in masks and balaclavas who, according to eyewitnesses, had been brought in by bus. Activist Grigory Kuzmin-Desnitsky said he had been at the site since morning and was later taken to Police Station No. 36. According to him, machinery was operating in close proximity to people while police did not intervene.
“We held them back for about three hours, standing as a human shield,” Kuzmin-Desnitsky said. He also said that about 12 other people aged 18 to 75 were detained with him.
Aleksandra Polishchuk, whose husband Ilya Popov was taken to police custody, said the demolition was proceeding from two sides of the building. She said protesters had earlier noticed a job-chat advertisement recruiting people “to cordon off a building,” offering 4,000 rubles per shift for 5 to 6 days. She believes the ad referred specifically to the VNIIB site.
At one point, some protesters managed to tear down the fencing and approach the machinery, after which detentions began. Activists said those detained included Kirill Travkin and former municipal deputy Mariya Voyutskaya. In a video, activist Aleksandr Komelkov said masked men struck him on the head with sticks, and that police refused to accept his complaint. According to the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Interior Ministry, cited by Fontanka, 11 people were detained on January 8.
The VNIIB building, constructed in 1955–1957 to a design by architects Zhuravlev and Filippova, had been approved for demolition back in 2019 for a 13-story residential building with 229 apartments by developer OOO 2-y Murinsky, part of FSK Group. Activists had sought heritage protection for the structure. In February 2025, a court required KGIOP to include it in the list of sites showing signs of cultural heritage status, but that status was later denied. Preservationists say a new application is still under review and therefore the demolition is unlawful. Investigative Committee representatives, by contrast, said the developer holds a valid construction permit through the end of 2027.