...Dmitrii Shevchenko, the deputy coordinator of a member organisation of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, “Ecological Watch in the North Caucasus” (EcoWatch), was detained at Krasnodar airport...The activist was kept in the police station in the airport without any charges brought against him and no protocol of his detention written...Taking into consideration that in the course of the past year activists of “Ecological Watch in the North Caucasus” have been systematically subjected to persecution by the Russian authorities, the Steering Committee of the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum expresses serious concern about the current situation in the region on the eve of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi...“Ecological Watch in the North Caucuses”...tries to oppose the violation of ecological legislation in the region, including in the course of the construction of facilities for the Olympics. The events...taken place in the Krasnodar region leave no doubt that the persecution of ecological activists has taken on a systematic character and is linked to the approaching Olympic Games in Sochi.