Heavy Equipment Used by Russian Firms in the Arctic Destroying Environment and Life of Indigenous Peoples, ‘Arktida’ Study Concludes

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 24 – Russian firms developing the Arctic continue to use Soviet-style heavy-tracked vehicles, machinery that destroys the environment and lives of indigenous peoples ever more seriously because of expanded operations and global warming which leaves ever more of the region uncovered by a protective layer of snow.

            That is the conclusion of a new study by the Arktida organization of the situation in nine regions of the Russian North where Maria Ivanova, one of that group’s analysts say, the destruction of the land’s surface is so great that it can be seen in satellite photographs (nemoskva.net/2025/06/24/shramy-tundry/).

            While other countries operating in the north have adapted the equipment they use so as to do less damage, her investigation shows, Russia has not; and the destruction of the land’s surface by such heavy-tracked vehicles is accelerating at an ever-increasing speed, melting of the permafrost and thereby making what had been a dangerous situation even worse. 

            Indeed, the continued use of such machinery is inflicting “significant harm to the traditional way of life of the numerically small indigenous peoples.” Their land and water resources have been so destroyed that they can no longer practice their traditional way of life, despite the guarantees they have on paper in the Russian Constitution.

            And when they stop practicing their traditional way of life, the Russian government argues that they no longer qualify for the protections. It is then in a position to deny that they are in fact a protected minority, something that means when the heavy-tracked vehicles go through, they destroy more than the natural environment. They destroy a human one as well.   

            Arktida calls for the adoption of a federal law that will restrict the use of these dangerous vehicles, their replacement by more modern and less destructive ones, and compensation for the populations which have seen their way of life destroyed in Moscow’s headlong race to exploit the Russian North.