Russia’s Regions Can and Must Declare ‘Ecological Sovereignty,’ Activist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, October 9 – Here are many things that the federal subjects cannot do, Vasily Vodnyov says, because they would violate the Constitution or one or another law; but there is one step they can take that will put them on the road to enjoying the genuine sovereignty that the Constitution promises but that the Kremlin has done everything it can to suppress.

            That step, the regionalist author says, is to declare ecological sovereignty, that is, control over the disposal of trash and other wastes from other territories onto its own. That may seem a small thing, but it is a critical one as suggested by the protests in Shiyes and elsewhere and by his own more immediate experience (region.expert/ecosovereignty/).

            He says that he lives in a building with somewhat fewer than 40 housing units, “including offices and little magazines.” And for a long time, Vodnyov says, the place was “drowning trash” even though it was collected four times a week.  Residents began to think about why that was so, and what they discovered was something both troubling and capable of a solution.

            The troubling thing was that people beyond the apartment bloc were dumping their trash into “our” trash cans; and the solution was to put in place strong gates that prevented them from dong do. Once that happened, Vodnyov says, the problem was solved. The others had to find places for their own trash rather than counting on “our” trash cans to bail them out as it were. 

            That model can be extrapolated to the regional level and become the basis for ecological sovereignty of the regions: “’not one subject of the (con)federation has the right to violate the environment of other subjects,’” an assertion that doesn’t violate the Constitution but that lays a foundation for real federalism.