A heartbreaking message came from France: a great tragedy has happened — our Dmitry Sekushin is gone. It is very hard to believe, and painful to write. Our grief is immeasurable. We received the news of his death on January 26.

Dima was 52. He is survived by his mother, sister, wife, and son. Since September 2024 he had been living in France, where he was granted political asylum last summer.

It is difficult to overestimate what Dmitry did as one of the initiators and organizers of the civic movement “Pomorye Is Not a Dump!” His active civic stance, sincere concern for the future of Russia’s northern Arkhangelsk region and the whole country, his creative energy, constructive ideas and proposals, organizational skills, and legal expertise all contributed to the environmental protest of 2018–2020 — remembered in history as the Shies defenders’ movement — becoming a mass movement. He took part in every action: from preparing and distributing campaign materials (red badges and stickers with protest symbols, leaflets for rallies and pickets with a memorable design — the embodiment of his ideas) and organizing rallies and pickets, to resolving complex legal issues.

For many of the Shies defenders, he was a close friend — a good, kind companion, someone dear to the heart.

He was not merely an environmental activist — a hero has gone. Dmitry led a resistance that, in effectiveness, surpassed any protests in the capital. He united and mobilized the Arkhangelsk region — people who stood up against the decision to turn their land into a dumping ground for the capital’s waste.

This is what happened: residents of the capital were outraged by landfills, and the authorities decided to ship the waste to the Arkhangelsk region, confident that people there would accept it in silence. But that was not the case. Northerners set up a tent camp at the site of the planned landfill and lived there for a full year — including through the winter. They held their ground against police lawlessness, against an attempt to destroy the taiga’s future and to contaminate its land and groundwater.

He did not bend. He stood firm and he won. He did not merely defeat a system — he defeated fear and indifference, leading a truly popular protest.

His name should be written in red ink in history textbooks — as one of the few who managed to defeat this criminal system.

Rest in peace, Hero.