Russias Foremost Environmental Activist,

in Exile: Oil Is At Fault For Everything.

BY ILYA LOZOVSKY-APRIL 24, 2015

Earlier this week, Russias best-known environmental activist and notable opposition
figure Yevgenia Chirikova left her home near Moscow with her two daughters to set up
residence in Tallin, Estonia. Chirikova joins many other prominent opposition-minded
Russians, including legislator Ilya Ponomarev and economist Sergei Guriev, who have
had to leave their homeland for fear of repression. Chirikova has explained that her
decision to leave was motivated primarily by fears that her children could once
again become pawns in the Kremlins effort to pressure her. While in Tallinn,
Chirikova plans to continue her latest project, a web portalthat allows Russians to
crowdsource information about environmental problems.

Foreign Policy spoke with Chirikova this week about her work, whats gone wrong in
Russia, and what it would take to change things.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
FP: Why Estonia?
Chirikova: Its close to my homeland. I have Russian citizenship, so I can go back
whenever I need to, and work, and keep taking part in the environmental movement.
Estonia is also the most advanced country in the world in Internet technology. I think
my project will get a second wind here.
FP: Are you expecting to have any problems crossing the border to visit Russia?
Chirikova: Absolutely, there could be problems. But its important for me that my
children are safe. I already had a scandal when they tried to take my kids away. As a
mother this is the most painful and important thing, the safety of my children. If
something happens to me in Russia, I know my kids will be safe. And if something
happens to me? Im an adult, its not so scary. I just think parents have no right to risk
the health and wellbeing of their children. Children need a happy childhood, and you
cant involve them in your affairs, its not their choice.
FP: How about your children how are they taking it? Do they know why your family
had to move?
Chirikova: Of course, the children didnt want to leave. They had a great school and
great friends. They had whole lives there, especially my older daughter. She is 13. She
really took it hard. But when we made this decision we explained everything to our
daughters. I think this is the best way, because theres no point in lying. Adults dont
think children know anything, but really they do understand whats happening.
We explained that they would have a big change in their lives, and that they should be
prepared. We said they would have to learn English very well. This is not so important
in Russia, but in Estonia many people dont speak Russian now.
FP: And how has it been for you in Estonia?
Chirikova: Ive been really impressed by the Estonian attitude towards old things and
to the environment. They dont destroy whats old. They try to care for it, to preserve it
for future generations. Thats why Tallinn is such a great, human city. The children love
it. Its very diverse. Theres a port with a fish market, there are old castles, like in fairy
tales, there are interesting modern buildings, lots of cultural life. The nature here is
great, with lots of parks. So its a pleasure, Tallinn. I really love it.
FP: Why do you work particularly on environmental issues, among Russias other
problems?
Chirikova: Thats just my personality I was built this way. Ive been worried about the
environment since I was born. Ive always felt that nature is very fragile. From my
childhood on, Ive felt how easy it is to destroy everything that has to do with nature.

And over my whole life, Ive been more and more convinced of this. Ive seen it with
my own eyes in Moscow and nearby, where I was born Ive been watching the
environment being destroyed.
I didnt become so progressive right away. At first the most important thing was the
destruction of the forest in Khimki by my house. But as Ive gotten older Ive started to
see it more. Thanks to the Internet, thanks to the fact that Ive become more involved,
Ive become convinced that I was totally right, my childhood feelings did not betray me.
I got such a shock last summer when I read a report that Roshydromet [a state agency
that monitors Russias environment] released, which said that climate change in
Russia is happening 2.5 times faster than in the rest of the world. Everything came
together for me the floods, the wildfires, the horrible smog in Moscow, these are all
links in one chain. Im not talking about warming, Im talking about destabilization of
the climate.
What we see in Khakassia are insane wildfires that are taking human lives, and people
are losing their homes. Or what weve observed in Moscow, our mortality rate
increased by 10 percent since the beginning of the year. Why? Its the air! No one is
writing or speaking about this. Its dangerous to breathe this air. People are already
complaining, but what will happen in the summer?
Climate change is happening in America as well but in America theres a different
reaction. At least 400,000 people go out into the street in New York to fight for
divestment, to call for green renewable energy, to preserve the planet. Thats the order
of the day. And for us, its more like in the 17th century.
FP: Why do you think theres no mass environmental movement in Russia?
Chirikova: Oil is at fault for everything. We have a raw material state. In a place where
resources like oil, gas, diamonds, and coal are the most important thing, human
beings are not important. You dont need to develop your industry, or any kind of
scientific institutions, or think too much. You say, Ill just sell oil, and Ill just live on this
oil money.
Smart citizens who understand whats happening and are not okay with this become
enemies of the state enemies of this oligarchy that is based on raw materials. And
the authorities try to punish them in various ways. Youll see arrests and imprisonment
of environmentalists, violence, murder. Because thats the system raw materials are
more important than people.
Its important for our authorities to make money right now, and they dont identify with
the country. If they really cared about the country, they would behave differently. In
Norway they have oil too, but they use their oil money to invest in their education
system, in the future. They dont depend on the oil like Russia. Here were having an
economic crisis precisely because everything depends on the oil. Prices just have to
change a little, and the whole country suffers.
FP: So in Russia, when a person is against pollution and worries about the

environment, that person becomes an enemy of the political system?

Chirikova: Exactly. And theres another thing. Here we dont have that many taxpayers,
we have just one source of money oil. And you can spend this money on
propaganda, so you can manipulate this population and convince them of all kind of
idiocies. You can create whole institutions of trolls who will advance their point of view
on the Internet, in addition to the TV and radio and everything else, of course. You can
buy the police, you can buy the prosecutors, you can gradually turn the country into a
third world country. It was painful for us to hear Russia called a gas station, but this
really looks like its true, because nothing is developing. The authorities are not trying
to do anything about the main challenge of the 21st century climate change.
We need real changes in the government policy a rejection of oil and a move to
green energy. We need to figure out how Russia can get over its addiction to oil. Right
now there isnt even that much conversation about this. You wont see it on TV.
FP: Besides on the Internet, are there any outlets in Russia taking up environmental
issues?
Chirikova: None. Neither the TV, nor the radio will talk about this. Even the opposition
channels, like Dozhd TV, or Echo of Moscow, dont talk about these things. You wont
hear anything about the real reasons behind thewildfires in Khakassia. We have no
place other than the Internet where these problems are discussed. Thank God that
Dozhd exists at all, its great but theres no development, theres only shrinkage.
Like Solzhenitsyn said: A country of strangled possibilities.
Im certain this era will go away, there will be another. But right now the situation for
activists is very hard. All my friends are either killed, or in jail, or they have criminal
cases pending against them.
FP: How would you describe the situation for environmental activists in Russia today?
FP: If you work to protect the environment, you are an enemy of the raw materials
oligarchy which now controls Russia. No matter what you defend. If you defend the
forest, someone will want to chop it down to make money building on it. If you defend
the fields, same thing. If you oppose oil extraction, or if you defend the shoreline of the
Black Sea, well, then we remember the cases of Suren Gazaryan and Evgeny
Vitishko. [Both are environmental activists who have been persecuted by Russian
authorities. Gazaryan had to flee the country; Vitishko is serving a 3-year prison
sentence for painting a slogan on a fence.]
And thats why I run my project, activatica.org so I can give a voice to these things.
If I could have my own radio station or my own TV channel, I would talk about these
problems there. But I dont have that possibility. The Internet is my battlefield. I have
no other way.
Another thing Ive learned is that its very dangerous for the opposition to have a single
leader. The authorities immediately attack him. For example, they tried to take my kids
away from me. Suren Gazaryan had to leave Russia. There were criminal cases

against him. Kostya Rubakhin had to ask for political asylum because he defended the
land in Voronezh from nickel mining. Vitishko has already served one and a half years
and has another year and a half to go. He got three years for protesting construction
for Putins dacha on the shore of the Black Sea. The situation for leaders of the
environmental movement is very dangerous. Thats why Im teaching leaderless
protests, so that they wont know who to go after.
FP: Is it impossible for the environmental situation in Russia to improve until there is a
new regime?
Chirikova: I dont see it that way. I think its impossible to change anything while our oil
is being bought. I have hopes for the Paris summit this December when our whole
planet will have a chance to say no to dirty fuel. When they stop buying Russian oil,
we will have to use our heads again and create something. People will become valued
again. If there wasnt any oil, with our very high level of education in Russia, we could
make it. Wed think of something. Were 140 million people. As if Russians couldnt
figure out how to earn themselves a loaf of bread other than through selling oil. Of
course we will.
Some Arab sheikh once said, The Stone Age did not end because they ran out of
stones. The oil wont run out either, but if the consciousness of the world changes
when they stop buying it from us then Russia will have positive change.
While we still have oil, alright, we might get another leader in power. For a time there
might be some improvements. But we had Boris Yeltsin, during whose rule this whole
oil addiction began. Under Yeltsin everything began to fall apart in manufacturing.
When we got Putin, for a while it wasnt so bad. Yeltsin had degraded, he was
drinking, and couldnt even control himself anymore. It was a very sad sight I wasnt
a fan of Yeltsin, to say the least.
But then there was a change, and for a while at the beginning there was a more or
less young and energetic Putin, and many smart politicians welcomed him at first.
Even Boris Nemtsov supported him at the beginning. But this economic model affected
him too. The problem is not that bad people come to power. I think they degrade
because of the bad economic model. For me, oil is like prostitution. Sooner or later, if
you earn money through prostitution, no matter how great of a person you are, you will
degrade. This may be a somewhat crude example, but its a telling one. No matter who
comes to power, this economic model will ruin him.
FP: The key to reform in Russia is ending purchases of its oil? Nothing will change
from within, the change will have to come from the outside?
Chirikova: Yes. I think so. I dont see any internal forces that are serious enough to
change the situation in Russia. I think the situation will change when theres a new
model of energy use, when theres more green energy. And I see such processes
already happening in America and in Europe. Its great that Obama refused the
Keystone pipeline. I think this is because the American people have understood what
climate change means, and theyre demanding that their government and their

businesses change to a safer form of energy.

When I look at where change in Russia will come from, it will be from changes to the
economic model. If theres no oil, there will be no money for propaganda. This poison
is a horrifying thing. The horrifying thing is not Putin, its his propaganda. They could
make Mickey Mouse president.
FP: What are your future plans?
Chirikova: I will keep working, keep advancing the environmental movement on the
Internet. I have a two-year visa. What will happen in two years? I have no idea, Im no
political scientist. I know if the environment does not change it will be very bad. I think
for now that if nothing changes, economically, then things in Russia will just keep
getting worse. Im just trying not to think about it. Im trying to do what I can. Activatica
is my answer to the propaganda. Its not much, but its the most I can do. So I will keep
working on it as much as I can.
VASILY POPOV/AFP/GettyImages
Posted by Thavam