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Abstract
Transnational linkages are generally considered advantageous for environmental activists who face an unsympathetic government at home. Since the early 1990s, Russia's environmentalists have developed a number of transnational ties that have increased their leverage over the Russian government. However, transnational support interacts with domestic constraints on mobilisation in unpredictable ways, generating obstacles as well as opportunities. The recentralisation of state power in Russia has presented environmentalists with a dilemma as they attempt to engage constructively with state bodies that prioritise security and economic growth and have little tolerance for autonomous public mobilisation or transnationalism. A comparison of environmental mobilisation on the extraction of petroleum resources, climate change and forestry illustrates the power and limits of transnational influence on Russia's environmental movement in a context of renewed state authority and economic globalisation. Thus far, Russian environmentalists have found it easier to achieve rhetorical change than institutional change in environmental governance; institutional change appears most likely when environmental and economic goals coincide.
Notes
1. In September 2009, Prime Minister Putin followed up on his pledge that preparation for the Olympic games would actually improve the ecological situation in the area. In a highly publicised event, Putin released two Persian leopards from Turkmenistan – a species that has been extinct in the Caucasus – in a wildlife sanctuary near Sochi.
2. The author would like to thank the Eurasian programme of the Social Science Research Council, the Trust for Mutual Understanding and the Fletcher Family Fund of Bowdoin College for supporting this work.
3. For assessments of the state of environmental governance from activists and experts across the Russian Federation, see the special issue of the journal Towards a Sustainable Development 2007, 42, available at http://www.ecopolicy.ru/upload/File/Bull_42en.pdf
4. The survey was carried out by the author and directed toward organisations represented in a 1999–2001 study. Survey forms were sent by post and followed by a second contact by post and email.
5. Respondents to the survey were guaranteed anonymity and are referred to by randomly assigned letters.
6. Environmental activist Y, 7 January 2006.
7. Environmental activist H, 12 July 2005.
8. Environmental activist D, 30 November 2005.
9. Environmental activist L, 5 January 2006.
10. Environmental activist I, 28 December 2005.
11. Environmental activist B, 13 July 2005.
12. Anatoly Lebedev, BROK, author interview, Primorskii Krai, October 2007.
13. Environmental activist L, 5 January 2006.
14. World Values Survey, http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/
15. Environmental activist U, 18 July 2005.
16. Environmental activist T, 2 March 2006.
17. Environmental activist H, 12 July 2005.
18. Environmental activist U, 18 July 2005.
19. Environmental activist U, 18 July 2005
20. Environmental activist AA, 14 July 2005.
21. Environmental activist U, 18 July 2005.
22. Interfax, 27 December 2008.
23. Marina Rikhvanova, leader of Baikal Environmental Water, later won the Goldman Environmental Prize for leading the campaign.
24. Interview with Aleksei Kokorin, Climate Change Program Coordinator, WWF-Russia, Moscow, 29 June 2005.
25. Website of the President of Russia, ‘Climate Doctrine of the Russian Federation’, 17 December 2009 ( http://eng.kremlin.ru/text/docs/2009/12/223509.shtml).
26. See, for example, Taiga Rescue Network, ‘Illegal Logging in the Boreal’, available at http://www.taigarescue.org/index.php?sub=2&cat=41. Informal estimates among those who have participated in illegal logging range as high as 60% (anonymous logger, Dalnorecheinsk, Primorskii Krai, 17 October 2007).
27. These findings were supported by interviews with Fyodor Kronikovsky, Director of Udegai Legend National Park, Primorskii Krai, 20 October 2007 and Alexander Kulikov, The Wildlife Foundation, Khabarovsk, 24 October 2007.
28. Critiques include Taiga Rescue Network, ‘Comments on Russian Forest Code’, January 2007, http://www.taigarescue.org/_v3/files/pdf/201.pdf and WWF-Russia, ‘Proekt Novogo Lesnogo Kodeks RF’, http://www.wwf.ru/about/what_we_do/forests/codecs/
29. Forest Stewardship Council, http://www.fsc.org/
30. For a list of certified firms, see http://www.forest.ru/eng/sustainable_forestry/certification/table-1.html
31. ‘Verbatim report on President Putin's meeting with participants of the ‘Civil G8 2006’, International Forum of Non-governmental Organisations’, available at http://en.civilg8.ru/forum0307/1989.php
32. ‘Verbatim report’.
33. ‘Beginning of the Meeting of the Security Council to discuss Russia's Environmental Security’, 30 January 2008, available at http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/speeches/2008/01/30/1136_type82913_158728.shtml
34. Presidential decree ‘On Measures to make the Russian Economy more Energy and Environment Efficient’, 4 June 2008, available at http://eng.kremlin.ru/text/news/2008/06/202099.shtml
35. Kommersant, ‘The Ecologically Pure Council’, 15 September 2008.
36. For example, a 2008 rating of Russian regions based on their environmental quality received quite a bit of media attention. St. Petersburg's ranking as the fifth dirtiest region was widely covered in the city's newspapers. Ratings are available at http://nera.biodat.ru/ratings/regions/
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