Russia

Sept. 2013 Partner: Crude Accountability

Crude Accountability Executive Director, Kate Watters, led a delegation of grassroots leaders from the U.S. to meet with Russian colleagues in Moscow and the Kuban Region. The trip focused on sharing strategies to protect fragile areas and communities based on experiences in our respective countries. To that end, we were invited to meet with local affected residents, grassroots leaders and government officials. Following are some of the highlights from those meetings as well as site visits to impacted areas:

Taman Peninsula:

Shore of the Black Sea

Taman Mud Volcano

Despite several years of residents objections, the Russkiy Mir Terminal (port and oil terminal) was completed in 2013. We heard from local residents of the small fishing town on the Black Sea describe impacts such as increased heavy truck traffic near their homes to the point they are demanding relocation. Another resident, Igor Golubenkov, founder of Saving Taman! shared that while they were not able to stop the project, they were able to make some local improvements that otherwise would not have been offered to local residents. In 2012 however he was brutally beaten by two men and told to “Stop your environmental work!”

To learn more about this fragile area and their struggles, near Sochi, read more from our host, Environmental Watch on North Caucasus Independent Environmental Report