Efforts to improve #Russia environmental protection standards condemned as 'muddled' and 'moving too slowly'

The unprecedented resignation of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his government took the world by surprise and has set the scene for a radical reshaping of Russian politics, writes Martin Banks.

Medvedev’s replacement, Mikhail Mishustin (pictured), lost no time in setting out his policy platform to rejuvenate the Russian economy. 

Mishustin’s prescribed solutions included digital investment, removing barriers to business, educational initiatives and poverty reduction but one notable element was missing – a commitment to improving environment protection standards. This could prove to be a misstep. 

Russians are growing increasingly concerned with the state of the natural environment that surrounds them. In a recent survey of 10,000 Russians by the Moscow Higher School of Economics, 94% of respondents saw environmental pollution as a pressing issue.

Environmental issues have taken centre stage at protest rallies in Russia over the past year, with citizens drawing attention to concerns including landfills, air pollution and a proposed water bottling plant at Lake Baikal.

This concern recently manifested itself in the capital. As Russian living standards continue to improve, albeit at a slower pace than in the previous decade, fast-growing Moscow is at the epicentre of material prosperity and burgeoning consumerism.

The Moscow region, which is becoming densely populated, can no longer handle the waste generated by the city. After a number of protests and public scandals, the city’s waste was recently redirected to the Arkhangelsk region near the White Sea coast where Europe’s largest garbage dump has been constructed. What used to be a beautiful region of lakes and marshes with impressive biodiversity is now a dumping ground where toxic waste poisons the ground water.

This short-term solution is symbolic of Russia’s muddled efforts to tackle environmental issues.

The country has a mixed environmental track record, starting in the Soviet era and continuing to the present day. The Worldwatch Institute named the once pristine Lake Karachayin the Ural Mountains as the world’s most polluted place from a radiological point of view.

From 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Mayak, the nearby nuclear waste storage and reprocessing facility.

This has since rendered the immediate area uninhabitable and forced the state to fill the lake with almost 10,000 hollow concrete blocks to prevent radioactive sediments from shifting.

In the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union, meaningful attempts were made to reform Russian environmental standards.

A range of environmental legislation has been passed since 1991, enshrining rights to a safe environment in the constitution.

Yet, whilst the new Russia has tried to put an end to second-rate environmental standards and neglect of toxic industrial assets, notable failures still exist. Concerns have been raised over how these reforms and regulations are implemented, and questions asked over the effectiveness of the judicial systemin enforcing them.

The Usolyekhimprom facility, neglected after an industrial firm’s bankruptcy in 2017, is a ‘toxic catastrophe waiting to happen’ according to Svetlana Radionova, head of state environment watchdog Rosprirodnadzor.

The derelict chemical plant contains tanks of chlorine, mercury, and other deadly substances spread across 600 hectares in Russia's Irkutsk region. In an interview last year, Radionova warned of ‘huge’ quantities of mercury and oil waste that could flow into the Angara River and complained that it is not the only case of owners abandoning or neglecting plants with hazardous industrial infrastructure.

It is claimed that a further example of alleged neglect can be found in Tolyatti,a city of 720,000 people on the banks of the Volga river. It is most famous for being the home of Russia’s largest car manufacturer Lada and was viewed favourably by Soviet leaders who filled it with sports facilities and parks.

Today those parks, it has been claimed,are more commonly associated with the heavy smell of ammonia from an enormous chemical plant near the city, owned by TogilattiAzot (ToAZ), the world’s largest producer of ammonia.  The company refutes allegations regarding any alleged environmental or health damage. Owners Vladimir and Sergey Makhlai, both of whom have fled Russia, have been charged in absentia with fraud.Both deny any wrongdoing.

Progress is being made by the Russian government to bolster environmental protection standards but Russia’s institutional environmental protection infrastructure remains underdeveloped and there is a need for greater federal investment alongside coherent regional strategies to tackle the problem. This should be coupled with enhanced support of independent Russian environmental organisations and the nascent ESG initiatives of Russian businesses.

The new Mishustin government has inherited stallingeconomic growth and falling approval rates of all branches of state power.

As challenging as the situation may be, the continued pollution of Russian ecosystems is a ticking time bomb which urgently requires a substantial effort from both businesses and the government to improve environmental standards and close the gap with leading economies.

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