Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the government to pay more attention to public opinion after a controversial highway through a protected forest was given the go-ahead on Tuesday.
"The president says that any big project that is a source of concern to people... should be subject to dialogue between the state, businesses and society," Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said.
"The president believes that the Khimki forest should be a lesson that such dialogue is necessary. It is an important signal to the authorities and businesses," she added.
Plans for the road, which would see part of a 650-kilometer toll highway linking Moscow to St. Petersburg cut through a centuries-old oak forest near the town of Khimki, prompted an outcry earlier this year that led Medvedev to freeze construction in August.
Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who led the commission on the road project, said it was "absolutely legal."
Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said 500 hectares of trees will be planted to compensate for the 100 hectares that will be chopped down to make way for the road.
He moved to allay environmental concerns, saying there would be no gas stations along the stretch of road that runs through the forest.
An alternative project that proposed bypassing the forest would have increased the cost of the road by 5 billion rubles ($163 million) and postponed construction until 2017, Transport Minister Igor Levitin said.
SKOLKOVO, December 14 (RIA Novosti)
