 He became famous in Russia and elsewhere when he was arrested on August 30, 2010, a day after a grassroots protest in the Moscow suburb of Khimki in which he was as a spokesman.The protest was against the government's plan to destroy the Khimki forest in order to construct a new Moscow-St. Petersburg highway.Gaskarov was known as one of the “Khimki hostages.”

On October 22, 2010, Gaskarov was released from police custody by Khimki Judge Svetlana Galanova in defiance of an appeal by the prosecution to leave him in police custody.