MOSCOW, March 6 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – A criminal case against Russian Republic of Chuvashia’s former minister of natural resources and ecology, Anatoly Yermolayev, charged with unlawful deforestation, has been transferred to a court, regional Prosecutor’s Office announced on Monday.

The case is to be reviewed by the Leninsky District Court of Cheboksary.

According to investigators, in late 2009 and early 2010 Yermolayev signed a forest felling contract, which resulted in unlawful high-scale deforestation estimated at 20,000 cubic meters under the guise of efforts targeted at the conservation and protection of nature. Damages caused to nature amount to 120 million rubles (about $2,000,000).