Have Arkhangelsk Protesters against Moscow Dump Plans Really Won Their ‘Stalingrad’?

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 15 – Six weeks ago, Russians in the Arkhangelsk region declared that the fight against plans to build a dump in their region to dispose of trash from Moscow was their “Stalingrad,” a battle they could not fail to join or afford to lose and therefore one they would fight to the end (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/03/29/80041-eto-nash-stalingrad).

            Since that time, there have been massive protests there and elsewhere in the Russian North against Moscow’s assumption that it can dispose of trash from the capital anywhere it likes; and today, it appears that the Arkhangelsk demonstrators have won at least a temporary victory. But whether it is a final one very much remains to be seen.

            According to an article in today’s Vedomosti, construction of the dump at Shiyes will be stopped as of June 15, an indication that it won’t end immediately, so that the authorities can hold hearings about all the pre-construction evaluations that were not done (vedomosti.ru/economics/articles/2019/05/15/801415-poligona).

            It turns out that Moscow and the Russian company that was to build the dump had not conducted the environmental impact statement Russian law requires or indeed any of the other pre-construction assessments needed. Those will now be done; and on their outcome, the future supposedly will depend.

            Indeed, the Moscow paper reports, there are no documents at all governing the dump construction plans beyond a simple contract between Moscow and the company involved, an example of Russian government arbitrariness and illegal action that in itself is likely to spark more protests – or at least more anger at the powers that be.

            If they come in negative as many activists hope, that would likely be the end of the project; but if they don’t either because of the facts or official pressure, there will presumably be hearings and even a referendum on whether the dump should be built, one that the authorities would seek to ensue would have the right outcome.

            Moscow is promising that all work will stop until things are sorted out and promised that it will involve “’the best Russian and international experts’” to assess the situation. If these people are allowed to do their job, the project will at a minimum have to be shifted because Russian environmentalists have already pointed out that it will contaminate a protected area.

            But a great deal of money and the amour proper of the powers that be are involved; and so it is entirely possible that Moscow will press ahead. In that event, there will be more protests, creating a situation that Moscow analyst Aleksey Makarkin suggests could only be resolved by holding a referendum, one the powers that be will work to ensure they win.

            According to the analyst, the situation is thus likely to continue to deteriorate because of “the absence of trust not only among the population in the authorities but among the powers that be in the population.”  That is now “a systemic problem,” something that means each side in every dispute will view the actions of the other with increasing suspicion.