St. Petersburg city crews scotch tape green branches to dead trees in an exciting new beautification effort

Yulia Akhverdiyeva, a woman living in St. Petersburg, shared a video on online revealing that someone used scotch tape to attach green branches to dried up trees in one of the city’s parks. In her August 22 video, she counted seven trees that got this special “reanimation” treatment.

Responding to Akhverdiyeva’s video and complaints by other locals, activists from the pro-Kremlin All-Russia People's Front visited the park and identified the trees as rowans that died during the winter. Someone has scotch taped branches from a willow tree to the dead rowans.

The likely culprits behind this curious “green infrastructure” are local city crews trying to prepare for St. Petersburg’s “Cozy Garden 2017” competition. A day after the green branches were taped to the dead trees, a 10-person committee from the competition inspected the park, which is a contender for this year’s prize. The winner will be announced sometime before September.