On the morning of Sunday, January 21, the "EXTREME ICE 2018" and "ICE DRIFT 2018" motor sport competitions were disrupted on the winter sports track "Ice Circuit" on Lake Baltym. The riders were opposed by officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Sverdlovsk Region and the administration of Verkhnyaya Pyshma and the police with the power support of the Urals Cossacks.

Since the morning on the ice circuit about a hundred policemen and Cossacks gathered. The latter blocked the cars on their way to the ice. According to eyewitnesses, they behaved aggressively and even broke the camera to one of the operators.

Races were banned due to violations by the athletes of the Water Code of the Russian Federation, according to which cars are prohibited from approaching water bodies closer than 200 meters.

"We protect the nature of the Sverdlovsk region. In this case, the legislation is violated ", - said the representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources.

By the way, the organizers and riders were ready for this turn of events and behaved correctly, avoiding provocations. The organizers warned about the visit of the siloviki and the Cossacks in advance.

"The administration of Upper Pyshma has been trying to close our ice rink for several years already. But until today they did this at least conditionally by legal methods. Now in the course went directly gangster ways, which will have unpredictable consequences. We hope that law enforcement bodies will understand the situation, give it due assessment and will not allow the disruption of one of the main domestic ice rallies, "said the tournament organizer Maxim Chentsov.

According to the organizers, the attempts to ban races are not related to violations of the law, but to the fact that they interfere with local oligarchs, whose dachas are located on the coast of Baltim.

VIDEO: Plato Mamatov.

PHOTO: Alexandra Shangareyeva.