Russia: despite the risk, the ardor of a band of young ecologists

August 30, 2023

Yegor Tchastoukhine holds out a flask towards the drainpipe of a factory from which vomits hot and stinking water. “A smell of herbal tea”, jokes the 18-year-old Russian eco-activist and “Trotskyist”, sniffing the sample taken.

Sonia Tchastoukhina notes the real (“muddy”) smell and the (“yellowish”) color of the water, under the eyes of her husband, Iégor, and his two accomplices, Alexeï Zetkine and Yakov Demidov.

The infamous liquid rushes out of a paper factory sanctioned for its polluting discharges and falls into a tributary of the Soura river, in the city of Penza, 600 km from Moscow.

The young ecologists – they are all under 20 – take a chemical test on the spot revealing suspected excesses of chlorine, iron and organic matter.

“The people who drink this water, who fish in it and bathe in it must understand the danger”, explains Iégor, with red locks and confident words.

For a long time in Russia, groups of independent ecologists like Yegor’s, which are not linked to pro-government organizations, have been exposed to persecution.

But in the midst of a crackdown on all dissenting voices since the assault on Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, a milestone has been reached with the banning of a series of environmental protection NGOs.

Russian affiliates of WWF and Greenpeace have been banned, accused of being henchmen of the West and of hampering the country’s economy.

Local environmental groups now survive, often of modest size, which are trying to continue the fight.

“What we are doing is legal and harmless. But tomorrow they could associate it with extremism or terrorism. The slightest transmission of information can become an alleged threat to the state”, observes Iégor.

Suddenly, a cameraman and a press agent sent by the factory arrive and start filming the scene.

Then a security guard appears. To avoid a police check, the group leaves. A few meters away, under trees, several men continue to fish quietly in the polluted water.

The group regularly checks rivers or garbage dumps. Supported by an older activist with legal skills, they report violations to the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the environmental protection agency.

Sometimes with surprising success.

In November 2021, Iégor and his friend Alexeï Zetkine, then high school students, carried out a control of the water discharged by the paper factory. Alexeï sends the results to the authorities who confirm massive pollution and recently sentenced a factory manager to a fine of 465,000 rubles (4,500 euros).

The factory, run by a local elected official from Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, has since invested in the modernization of its equipment.

But Alexei, after his revelations, was expelled from the pro-government environmental association of which he was a member, accused of having carried out this inspection without the approval of his hierarchy.

In February 2022, Alexeï created his own organization, Eko-Start. He and Iégor continue to act together.

After the control in front of the paper factory, they take the AFP to an open dump near Penza from which toxic fumes escape and find themselves pell-mell rotten vegetables, electric batteries and medical waste.

“The landfill owners are people in high places in the region. They save money by not sorting the waste, by not respecting the storage rules”, regrets Alexei.

He met Yegor when they were members of the Komsomol, the youth of the Russian Communist Party, which, although subject to the dictates of the Kremlin at the national level, sometimes embodies active opposition at the local level.

Both have since left the Komsomol. Yegor defines himself as a “Trotskyist-internationalist” opposed to the “Stalinists” and political repressions.

Their militancy is unique. A part of the young Russians, frightened, avoid any dissident activity, another is cloistered in indifference, apoliticism, or supports the regime.

Alexei shares this observation, but thinks that “if you don’t do politics today, politics will come to you tomorrow”. According to him, the conflict in Ukraine has politicized many young people, pushing them to commit themselves for or against.

The action chosen by the two friends is all the more justified since, according to experts, the conflict risks causing new ecological problems in Russia.

Because in addition to repressing NGOs, the government is relaxing anti-pollution standards to support the economy under sanctions and the military-industrial complex whose arms factories are running at full speed.

The coordinator of the NGO Bellona, Ksenia Vakhroucheva, in exile, told AFP that there are already no longer any Russian environmental organizations powerful enough to bring about “systemic change”.

Alexeï Zetkine wants him to believe that “two or three” effective associations, in each region of the country, could “change” Russia, with small victories.