“for the Forest, for the Water, for Our Nature”: Scenariors of (De) Politization of the Environmental Agenda in Russian Regions

Environmental activism in Russia has traditionally been seen as a sphere separate from politics. However, environmental issues often require political solutions that can lead to ordinary people becoming more interested in political action. The opposite process, depoliticization, involves distancing from political participation and stigmatization of political action. The politicization of the environmental agenda in Russian society has several paradoxical phenomena. It promotes citizen involvement in politics, while in others, it is seen as a way to protect citizens from getting involved in politics. The degree of politicization seems to depend on factors such as the level of pollution and threats to public health, but research shows that this isn't always the case.

Citizens' discussions and challenges to authorities' actions are not always related to the severity of environmental problems. The conditions for politicization can vary, and regions with similar levels of pollution can have different intensities of environmental protests (Semenov et al., 2024). Many environmental protests often turn out to be framed through pro-government rhetoric and an appeal to traditionalist values (Kuzmina, 2023; Turovets, 2015). Environmental activists, who claim to be apolitical, often take political actions. The government itself tries to use environmental issues to co-opt activists (Martus, 2021). This study aims to answer the following questions: Why does the politicization of environmental issues occur in Russian regions? What scenarios exist for grassroots politicalization of the environment?

The study is based on an analysis of grassroots environmental movements in three regions: the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Trans-Baikal Territory, the Sverdlovsk Region. The research methods used include semi-structured interviews with members of environmental organizations, focus groups, an analysis of regional media.

Based on the politicization of the environmental agenda in these regions, we identified several types of grassroots activism: patriotic ecological movement, pragmatic ecological movement, civic ecological movement, and environmental volunteering.