Moscow Project to Clean Up the Volga and Lake Baikal has ‘Failed’ Despite All the Money Spent, Officials Concede

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 10 – Despite all the money spent on the much-ballyhooed national project to clean up the Volga River and Lake Baikal, that effort has “failed” with only a tiny proportion of its stated goals -- perhaps as little as four percent having been achieved -- according to experts, Duma members and even senior officials in the Russian government now concede.

            That failure which leaves many Russians without the clean water the Kremlin had promised and them as well without the food resources the river and the lake had supplied has now been documented by Novyye Izvestiya (newizv.ru/news/2025-06-10/sryv-natsproekta-dengi-na-ochistnye-na-volge-i-baykale-potracheny-vse-rabotayut-4-437044).

            What makes this investigation so important is that it again calls attention to the more general problem that when Putin declares something a national project, everyone can be sure that much of the money allocated for it will flow into the pockets of his friends and allies rather than going to achieve its stated purpose.