Indigenous groups block road to oil site

Dozens of representatives of small indigenous groups blocked a road leading to a Sakhalin oil site in the Russian Far East on June 28 to protest development plans they say will damage the environment and disrupt their traditional culture.

About 75 people blocked the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk-Okha road on Sakhalin Island, said the regional Council of Small Indigenous Peoples.

Some of Russia’s largest oil and gas fields are located off Sakhalin Island, which is more than 6,200 miles east of Moscow and some 430 miles north of Tokyo. Many multinational oil companies are currently working to tap the reserves.

—The Associated Press