COMMUNISTS rallied in the Russian city of Kaliningrad over the weekend against the “ecocide” threat posed by new potassium mines.

Authorities have struck a deal with the subsidiary of a Dutch investment firm to mine potassium salts from 2020 — but locals in the region, a federal subject of Russia sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, said the plan will deal “irreparable damage” to the local environment.

Governor Anton Alihanov has declined to either support or oppose the plans, which have been approved by the United Russia-dominated council, but local communist leader Igor Revin said he had no right to neutrality on the question.

“Because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spew thee out of my mouth,” he said, attributing the phrase to the Bible.

Mr Revin said United Russia (Russia’s ruling party) took “anti-people decisions” and had taken Russia back to the “Middle Ages, when the feudal lords did as they wished.”