Trash Protests More Likely to Expand, Spread and Link Up than were Those about Pensions, Shaburov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 4 – Russians were furious about the government’s boosting of the pension age, but after some initial protests, demonstrations against that new policy fizzled out. Many expect the same thing to happen with actions against the construction of trash dumps in the regions. But that is almost certainly wrong, Aleksey Shaburov says.

            The reasons for that conclusion, the Politsoviet editor argues, lie in the different natures of pensions and trash. Pensions concern everyone but for most only in the future. Trash in contrast is something here and now and “no one wants to see or life next to it” (politsovet.ru/64528-musor-i-doverie-kak-musornaya-reforma-obnazhila-izyan-rossiyskoy-vlasti.html).

            In addition, Shaburov continues, “no one want to pay more money so that there won’t be trash next door.”  Consequently, in disposing of it, the powers that be have no good options; and the people recognize that if they don’t object at the planning stage, they will have to live with trash in their own backyards forever.

            At the same time, the authorities can’t leave things as they are: the trash in Moscow keeps being produced and must be disposed of somehow. But finding a place to dispose of it is hard because “wherever that is, there will be protests and anger: people are afraid of new dumps and afraid of factories that will process the trash.” 

Dealing with the problem of trash is going to inevitably require that people agree with something they don’t like.” And because they don’t like it and assume the worst, they are going to resist.  They’d be more likely to agree if they trusted the authorities to keep their word, but overwhelmingly they don’t.

The trash reform thus is “a big political bomb for the Russian authorities. It is possible and necessary to carry this reform out, but for its success, the trust of people is required” and that trust doesn’t exist, Shaburov says. Worse, it is anything but clear how the authorities can rebuild such trust. 

As a result, “the success of trash reform much more strongly depends on politics than it may seem. And politics in its turn will depend on reform, the longer things go on as they are, the more so,” the commentator concludes.