A garbage incineration plant reportedly owned by the son of Russia’s attorney general has been filmed spewing purple smoke on the eastern outskirts of Moscow for at least the third time in as many years.
Activists seeking to shut down the MSZ-4 plant have long complained about its bad odor and adverse environmental impact. The plant, said to be majority-owned by the Russian prosecutor general’s youngest son, Igor Chaika, burns over a quarter million tons of solid waste per year.
“MSZ-4 is painting Muscovites’ lives with bright colors for the third day [straight],” quipped the author of a widely shared tweet showing plumes of purple smoke rising from the plant on Thursday.
Other users seized on the smoke’s religious symbolism, joking that “a new pope has been chosen.”
Prosecutor General Yury Chaika’s son was reported to have won Moscow’s lucrative $500-million waste collection contract in spring 2018.
