Since Invading Ukraine, Moscow has Gutted Environmental Protection in Russia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 19 – Wars often provide governments with an opportunity to gut environmental protections in the name of national defense; and since the massive Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions that have followed, Moscow has done more than most, effectively “killing the natural environment” in that country, Yekaterina Maksimova says.

            In an article for The Insider, the Russian journalist details the ways in which the Russian authorities have engaged in “the process of liquidating norms and laws protecting the environment and shifted away from a commitment to a commitment to protect the environment in the course of economic activity” (theins.ru/obshestvo/252226).

            Among the steps in this direction Moscow has made or is threatening to make are a relaxation of rules governing the disposal of trash by burning, something that will lead to the release of more harmful gases into the atmosphere and an effective end to recycling given that most recycling technology is dependent on currently inaccessible Western technology.

            According to one study, Russia’s recycling programs now being dispensed with were 70 percent dependent on imports (if24.ru/otrasl-pererabotki-posle-vvedeniya-sanktsij/). Even before the government reduced its commitment to recycling, only seven percent of trash in that country was being processed with an eye to reducing the impact of trash disposal on the environment.

            But as dramatic as those moves are, three others may be even more harmful, a plan to eliminate any restrictions on logging that could lead to deforestation in many regions, new restrictions on who can conduct environmental impact assessments so that NGOs cannot play a role, and the elimination of controls on waste flowing into Lake Baikal and waterways.

            And environmentalists fear, Maksimova says, that if Russia is forced to cut back oil and gas production that may have a negative impact on ecology as well because of Russia’s less than stellar record of preventing leaks when wells are capped or when the government and private firms seek to store petroleum for any length of time.