Event analysis applied to study the seizures of land and deal with them

The study discusses the situations with the seizures of forest and coastal areas in different regions of Russia and the attitude of the authorities, local residents and the public to these seizures. The website of the Open Shore social movement in Russia served as a source of information for the study. By means of the event analysis, the author examined the details of 427 events in the period of 2011-2018 and classified the content of events, the agents and targets. The researcher revealed that the information about the seizures often referred to the Leningrad region and the events related to the implementation and protection of the capture and opposition to it as well. The efforts of activists of social movements served as the basis for the collective fight against seizures. At the same time, non-violent physical actions predominated. It is concluded that the actions of activists exemplify the will of the civil society to restore the right to free use of publicly available forest areas by people.