"The authorities wanted to remove him as a leader and neutralise the protest," said Olga Mirzayeva, Yegorov's wife. "It's to isolate him so he can't speak out anymore... about the poisoning of the water and soil, what we drink and grow to eat."
Demonstrations have increasingly shaken provincial Russia, the bedrock of the President's support.
An independent survey this week pegged Putin's job approval at 64 per cent, 12 points lower than a year ago.
Last month, trust in the President fell to a record low of 33 per cent.
Moscow has been scrambling to deal with the rubbish of its 13 million people since residents of the suburb of Balashikha reached Putin during a televised hotline in 2017 and convinced him to close a huge tip there dubbed the "waste Everest".
Soon trucks were ferrying more waste to dumps in nearby cities and locals were complaining about noxious fumes that caused headaches, nosebleeds and chronic weakness.
Among the 44 cites that saw protests earlier this month was Urdoma, where hunters last year discovered a tip secretly being built in the woods.
In an annual address last week mostly dedicated to growing economic problems, Putin lashed out at "shady firms... dumping rubbish wherever and however they can" and called for better implementation of a reform to create a unified waste management company in each region.
Kolomna complained that the reform has only raised rubbish removal fees.
Several of these waste removal firms are run by relatives of high-ranking officials, including the sons of the prosecutor general and state bank director.
