One Victory and a String of Defeats for Russian Environmentalists on Trash Front

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 9 – The Arbitrage Court in Arkhangelsk Oblast ruled that the company building the trash dump at Shiyes that has parked protests over the last year and come to symbolize Moscow’s contempt for the lives and welfare of people in the regions had violated the provisions of its rental agreement.

            Specifically, the court held, the company had illegally built structures that are banned by the rental agreement and must now tear them down. Despite the certainty that the company will appeal to Moscow and may win there, Shiyes activists are delighted (znak.com/2020-01-09/sud_obyazal_snesti_postroyki_dlya_musornogo_poligona_na_shiese_oni_priznany_nezakonnymi).

            They see this as a breakthrough that can be copied elsewhere by activists opposed to the construction of dumps in the regions for trash from Moscow. But there are two important caveats besides the likelihood that the company will appeal. On the one hand, court decisions of this kind in Russia do not have precedential value.

            And on the other, the Shiyes case has attracted so much attention that the Kremlin may very well have decided to allow the activists a victory there so that Moscow officials can act as they like elsewhere with less chance that dumps in other regions for trash from the capital will spark the same kind of demonstrations and unity among environmentalists.

            That the powers that be in Moscow plan to press ahead with disposal plans that will harm the health and wellbeing of Russians in the regions and contaminate the environment there for years to come is suggested by a series of developments over the last two weeks that have generally escaped notice because of the winter holidays.

            First, the Duma has passed a new law which equates the burning of hard communal wastes to their “utilization,” an action that experts and activists say will kill any chance that the Russian government will require citizens to sort their trash. Instead, everything will go together and the results will be catastrophic (interfax.ru/russia/688405).

            Second, also at the end of December, Moscow city authorities published a plan for the territorial distribution of trash outside the city over the next ten years. Millions of tons of waste are now slated to end up in Moscow, Kaluga, and Vladimir oblasts, and possibly others as well, exactly the opposite of what protesters want (severreal.org/a/30327729.html).

            Dmitry Sekushin, leader of the Pomorye is Not a Trash Can movement at Shiyes, says Shiyes isn’t included because the Moscow authorities are afraid to include that name in any official document because they are certain that would lead to new protests around the country (svoboda.org/a/30343725.html).

            “The absence of Shiyes in the territorial scheme should not reduce vigilance in Arkhangelsk Oblast or elsewhere,” Sekushin says, “because including it later won’t present any problems. That which is now taking place throughout Russia is horrific: the authorities are trying to create as many trash dumps” as possible below the radar screen of the population.

            Third, the authorities used OMON forces at the very end of the year to disperse a camp of environmental activists near Kazan, an indication that Moscow has no intention of backing down from its program in the regions.

            Fourth,  only 55 regions have discussed territorial trash disposal programs, and in most, the opinions of ordinary people were simply ignored while the demands of the companies were met (kommersant.ru/doc/4214989, akcent.site/novosti/6866 and club-rf.ru/news/56452).

                And fifth, a group of Russian scholars examining Moscow’s trash disposal plans reported that each Russian plant as currently designed will put into the atmosphere dioxins equal in amount to all 77 trash processing plants now operational in the US.  That will contaminate the land for 100 square kilometers around, boost cancer rates, and reduce birthrates.

            As opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov puts it, Russians must continue their protests against Moscow’s trash disposal plans because as of now, “the authorities have placed their bets” on processing procedures which will have the worst possible consequences for the environment and the health and wellbeing of the Russian people.