Pollution Killed 20,000 Russians Died Last Year and Made Millions More Sick, ‘To Be Precise’ Portal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 27 – The To Be Precise portal, which documents social developments in Putin’s Russia, has produced the most comprehensive survey so far of the ways in which polluted water, air, and ground is having an impact on the lives of Russians, killing many and making others sick, and the ways Moscow is seeking to hide all this by bureaucratic sleight of hand. 

            While various Russian media outlets have picked up parts of the story To Be Precise tells, the original article prepared by Aleksandra Chernova is devastating in its description of these health consequences and of the steps the Putin regime has taken to cover them up (tochno.st/materials/glavnye-ekologiceskie-problemy-rossii-v-2025-godu-issledovanie-esli-byt-tocnym).

            Russian government figures show that in 2024, approximately 20,300 people died from pollution, slightly over half from polluted water, two-thirds of the rest from dirty air, and 2800 from polluted soil and other physical factors. Almost three million were made sick by polluted water, and one Russian in ten did not have access to clean water at home. 

            These figures have had an impact on the Russian economy because those who have become ill in addition to their personal suffering aren’t able to go to work and produce for businesses and the state. And so to no one’s surprise, the Russian government has sought to hide the impact of pollution.

            The figures for 2024 are almost the same as those from 2023, but they are far lower than those from 2022. The reason is not any environmental cleanup but the way in which the authorities are counting and reporting such losses. The agencies charged with doing so have both used estimates rather than actual studies and then closed off public access to supporting data.

            As a result of this sleight of hand, Moscow has succeeded in impressing some that it is actually improving the situation whereas in fact, it is making the situation worse by allowing people to believe that things are getting better when in fact they are going in exactly the opposite direction.