A Predominantly Ethnic Russian City Appeals Directly to Canada and the UN

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 9 – Many non-Russian nations within the current borders of the Russian Federation routinely appeal to international bodies, but now something remarkable has occurred, the residents of Kiselyovsk, in predominantly ethnic Russian Kemerovo Oblast, have sent one to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and UN Secretary General António Guterres.

            Below are some key passages from their message of despair about the environmental and economic disaster they find themselves in and about their conviction that the current Russian government in Moscow, regionally and locally can do nothing to solve (facebook.com/groups/former.russia/permalink/479862316127391/).

            “We, the residents of the city of Kiselyovsk of Kemerovo Oblast of the Russian Federation want to openly appeal to the honorable Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres,” the appeal begins.

            “Today in Russia and especially in the Kuzbass there exist conditions in which life is unbearable. Our region is rich in coal and now the coal industry is being conducted in a barbaric way.” The 90,000 people of Kiselyovsk are forced to live right next to where coal is being taken from the ground and then processed before being shipped elsewhere.

            “This winter, the entire world saw our black snow. In the city, we breathe in coal dust … Out children almost the entire winter – and it is just as long here as it is in Canada – cannot go out to play. They become sick from the smog and from the coal dust hanging in the air.”  But those who own the coal industry ignore “the interests of the people of the city.”

            Our homes are at risk from the mines, “but no one wants to help us.” Instead, businessmen and officials tell us that if we don’t mine coal, we won’t have jobs and we won’t eat.  But now ever more of us are getting sick, including with cancer.  As a result, “we in fact feel driven into a corner and live in a constant state of depression.”

            “In our city, there are districts where there is no chance to find pure water.  In our land, there has not been any harvest for several years [and] we are forced to live under conditions of ecological poverty. We are in despair and so we are turning to Canada and the United Nations in the hope that someone will help us.

            “Most honorable Justin Trudeau, we are turning to you with an enormous request that you consider offering Kuzbass residents the status of refugees” given that we are victims of an environmental disaster and are suffering from social discrimination as a result. We do not believe that we can improve our situation anywhere in Russia.

            The appeal continues: “We are all working people. We can and know how to work. We have children and we don’t want that they get cancer or other diseases from the bad environment. We have tried all means to resolve these problems, but we have not succeeded in any of them. And so we have decided to turn to Canada “because it is very similar to our Siberia.”

            Like Siberia, Canada has “a lot of snow and is cold.” Its natural environment is similar too. “Yes, it is possible we have a different mentality, but it is easy to change that when there are favorable conditions around: pure air and pure water now have become beyond the reach of many in the cities of the Kuzbass.”

            “We are people, we have children, and we simply want to live. We can become useful for Canada, since Russia has simply forgotten about us and we feel as if no one here needs us.”

            The Kiselyovsk residents also appealed to UN Secretary General Guterrez. They said that they have “more than once sent appeals to President Vladimir Putin with prayers for salvation … But not once has anyone received an answer … We don’t ask for a personal response from Putin but hope that he will force the guilty” to end our plight.

            “We cannot say why the president is ignoring the problems of an entire oblast …. Our country helps many other countries like Syria, Donetsk Oblast, and Luhansk Oblast. Our government forgives other countries enormous debts but as for the residents of its own Kuzbass, it simply forgets them.”

            “But we are people too, and our children are also alive. We did not do anything bad, so why must be live in such unbearable conditions?” the residents ask.

            Perhaps our appeals have not reached Putin, they continue, and ask the UN secretary general to intervene to make sure he knows of their plight.  “We are tired of waiting for changes.” When they have come, things have only gotten worse. “And it is dangerous to wait any longer.” More people are getting cancer and dying.

            What is “most important,” the residents say, is this: “We are not betraying our country. We simply want to live and have a guarantee that we as people mean more than any natural resources taken from the earth. If the Russian Federation cannot give us this, this means we must seek the chance to live in other countries where people are more highly valued.”

            “It is difficult for us to be patriots of this country. What does the Motherland mean after all? The land on which he lives? In Kiselyovsk and in the Kuzbass, the land doesn’t belong to us … any piece of land at any moment can be taken for the needs of the owners of the coal enterprises.”

            Is the Motherland only the president and our powers that be? “How can one be a patriot of either when they don’t take note of how we live, breathe and drink…”