Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
property registered in their names personally instead of for their agen-
cies or companies. This way they can hold it more securely and eventually
pass it down to their biological heirs. The critics maintain that political
analysis that examines the tensions between the liberal and reactionary
forces is naïve. Parliamentary debate in the Duma is a sideshow. The 2011
Arab Spring with democratic demonstrations in Tunis and Cairo terri-
fied the Russian leadership because it showed how ordinary citizens could
overthrow a repressive regime. 5
Civil society refers to the nongovernmental organizations in a society,
such as churches, labor unions, clubs, Boy Scouts, interest groups, envi-
ronmental organizations, and so forth. They are so common in Western
democracies that they are often not even mentioned but that is not true for
Russia. After 1917 the Communists vigorously stamped out autonomous
bodies and replaced them with governmental ones. This was a major aspect
of Totalitarianism. The Orthodox Church was nearly eliminated, replaced
by official atheism. The Young Pioneers became the only children's group.
Environmental groups were not welcomed, although a few appeared in
the 1980s. Since 1991 civil society has emerged. The Orthodox Church
has reemerged strongly with over half the people saying they adhere to
its faith. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions is the successor to
the defunct Soviet one, and had been critical of the government on many
occasions. Nevertheless, many do not consider it sufficiently independent.
While groups are not strong, a multiplicity exists. The Socio-Ecological
Union continues to be the largest with over 250 member groups. Activities
include monitoring chemicals and radioactivity, supporting forests and
nature reserves and education. Green Cross Russia was founded by Mikhail
Gorbachev, himself, after becoming unemployed with the dissolution of
the USSR. The All Russia Wild Nature Protection Society offers advice
to agencies and local governments. International groups are active, but
only a few. The Wildlife Conservation Society, based in New York, runs its
Siberian Tiger Project in the Sikhote-Alin Biosphere in the Far East near
the border with China and the Pacific Ocean. The Greenpeace effort is not
cooperative in this fashion. It criticizes Gazprom, the oil and gas com-
pany, for damaging the Arctic in drilling in the Pechora Sea. It  accuses
the government of opening the Virgin Komi Forests territory, officially
protected as a World Natural Heritage Site, to gold mining. In neighboring
Ukraine, Greenpeace activists with alpine equipment climbed 10 stories
up the European Bank building and unfolded a banner: “The only safe
reactor is a closed reactor.”
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