UNESCO May Sanction Russia for Deteriorating Situation around Lake Baikal

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 12 – Because of the deteriorating environmental situation around Lake Baikal, UNESCO may soon place that body of water on its list of world heritage sites at risk of disappearance and call for the introduction of sanctions against the Russian Federation for failing to take actions to improve conditions and in fact taking actions that make things there worse.

            Moscow officials promise that they will not allow the UN body to take such an action; but even as they do, Aleksey Baliyev of the Rhythm of Eurasia portal says, they are allowing polluters to increase rather than cut back their activities and developers to destroy much of the natural cleansing areas around the lake (ritmeurasia.org/news--2021-12-12--bajkalu-mogut-predpisat-mezhdunarodnuju-reabilitaciju-57763).

            Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoriya Abramchenko said at the end of last month during a visit to Mongolia that “the Russia Federation will do everything not to allow the inclusion of Lake Baikal in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites under threat.” According to her, Moscow will ensure that this issue isn’t even raised.

            But both her comments and those of other Russian officials and the actions of developers who have received Moscow’s blessings to go forward make it clear that Russia isn’t going to meet UNESCO deadlines for various amelioration measures. Indeed, as UNESCO suggests, the situation almost certainly will deteriorate further.

            Vladimir Slivyak, the vice president of the EcoDefense regional organization, says that there is thus a real risk that “Baikal will be included in the special list of heritage sites under threat,” a black eye for the authorities in the eyes of Russians and for Russia in the eyes of the world (sibreal.org/a/na-bajkale-hotyat-postroit-feshenebel-nyj-kurort/31397609.html).

            The impact of any UNESCO decision on Russian public opinion is likely to be great. Lake Baikal and more generally the fate of rivers in Siberia and the Far East have been of great concern to Russians for more than a generation, and these environmental concerns often led to the rise of movements which became political at the end of Soviet times.

            There is no guarantee that something similar won’t happen again especially as Moscow’s behavior, permitting wealthy Russians to make money at the expense of a natural treasure of the Russian people will only highlight what is tragically an unfortunate characteristic of the regime of Vladimir Putin.