Employees of Trest-2, LLC, the general contractor for the Oleniy Ruchey mine, were assaulted on their way home fr om work at 12:30 am on July 13, in Koashva settlement, Murmansk region. An estimated ten people attacked five employees of Trest-2 and attempted to break into the apartment of one of the employees, wh ere his wife and an eight-month-old child were. All of the victims, including the employee’s wife, reported injuries stemming from the attack.
The police apprehended several of the offenders and are preparing to open a criminal investigation. It was learned that the attackers drove to the site of the attack in a UAZ car owned by Factor-Service, LLC, a company contracted for work by JSC Apatit. A badge for accessing Apatit’s facilities was also discovered in the car. The Koashva police chief has reinforced patrols to ensure residents’ safety.
Over the past several months, media outlets in Murmansk have waged systematic warfare against NWPC and Acron Group. Pseudo-ecologists keep accusing NWPC of attempts to “destroy” the Khibiny national park while developing the Partomchorr deposit, although all required authorisations have been obtained for the project, and the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources has established a task force represented by all concerned parties to elaborate best solutions to lay the road to the deposit. It is obvious that Acron’s competitors are upset about the commissioning of the Oleniy Ruchey mine, which has been constructed against a hostile backdrop of ongoing false rumours, economic pressure, and now physical assault. Likewise, it would seem that Acron’s competitors will stop at nothing to prevent NWPC from establishing an alternative raw material base in Khibiny.