After the Ban: Which Way Forward for Russia’s Climate Activists?

Aug. 21, 2023

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russian civil society has faced increasing repression at home. The environmental movement is no exception. While they kept communication channels open before the war, feeding the outside world precious data on the state of Russia's forests, permafrost and Arctic, large mainstream NGOs such as WWF, Greenpeace and Bellona have all been declared undesirable organizations in recent months. This makes their national-level work next to impossible.

Angelina Davydova and Boris Schneider spoke to Vitaly Servetnik, a campaigner at Russia's Friends of the Earth and the Russian Socio-Ecological Union, about the situation, as wildfires continue to engulf eastern Siberia. Unflappable, Servetnik maintains that environmentalists within the country are as defiant and creative as ever.

Read more about: Climate change , Environment

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