Paul Goble
Staunton,
February 4 – Yesterday, Russians in 30 cities across the Russian Federation
protested against Kremlin plans to dispose of the garbage the capital generates
in their areas. They carried signs like “Send the Trash Back to Moscow,” another
indication that this communal issue is rapidly becoming a political challenge
to the center.
Opposition
outlets in Moscow and abroad covered these events while official ones either ignored
them or played them down because so few showed up in this or that location (e.g.,
newtimes.ru/articles/detail/176695, http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5C57E141ABDCB,
forum-msk.org/material/news/15398948.html
and polit.ru/article/2019/02/04/russia_trash/).
But that is to ignore the two most
important features of these demonstrations, the way in which this fundamentally
communal issue has been transformed into a political one and the all-Russian
nature of the protest even though some regions, especially the Far North, where
perhaps the disposal of trash is especially obvious at this time of year, are ahead
of others in this regard.
In a comment for Radio Svoboda’s
IdelReal portal, Iskander Yasaveyev, a Higher School of Economics sociologist
who works in Kazan, observes that one of the most significant signs at the protest
in the Tatarstan capital was “We are citizens, Not Slaves! We demand Our
Opinion be Taken into Account” (idelreal.org/a/29750237.html).
“In my view,” he continues, “this is
the main argument. If citizens [of this or that location] are against
construction [of trash-disposal sites], then the powers that be must find
another solution.” That is the case in Finland and other countries; and it must
become the case in the Russian Federation.
Unfortunately, at present, “Russian
and Tatarstan authorities exclude the participation of citizens in the
resolution of the trash problem. As a result of this, the problem of garbage in
Russia is rapidly being transformed into the problem of power.” People who only
want the garbage to go away are now making political demands.
And they are gaining allies: In
Tatarstan, a large number of other interest communities have declared their
solidarity with those opposed to the construction of a trash-processing
facility. “If the powers that be do not take note of this, so much the worse for
them,” Yasaveyev concludes.
The Region.Expert portal, which
tracks developments in Russia’s far-flung
regions notes that “as expected” the largest protests against trash took place
in the Russian North and especially in Arkhangelsk oblast, the Pomor region,
and the Komi Republic (region.expert/north-politics/).
“Most today really is (or is trying
to become) ‘the main supplier’ of trash to other regions,” the portal says. “Ecologists
blame this on the uncontrolled growth of the Moscow agglomeration,” itself the product
of the hyper-centralization of the Russian political and economic system.
While
the protesters in Arkhangelsk seemed less radical and were bought off at least
for now by official promises to “study the situation,” those elsewhere are beginning
to call things by their own names, with Pomor and Komi activists now speaking
about this and other developments as aspects of “’Moscow’s colonial policy’” (region.expert/colonial/).
There is a good precedent for
environmental protests growing into political ones especially along the
periphery of the country. At the end of the 1980s, environmental activism helped
power the rise of the Estonian drive for recovery of independence (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/01/unresolved-environmental-problems.html).
Region. Expert suggests that a
slogan like “’No to Moscow Trash!’” would be “a very effective and important
slogan that would be understood by residents of various oblasts and republics.
Not only in the literal but in the police and thus in the political sense as
well.”
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