Russia and Its Neighbors - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 236

legitimacy. Groups lacked skills in lobbying. The average citizen was not
wealthy and did not have a tradition of citizen action. The Green Party
that appeared briefly after the Revolution is now moribund. 9
CONCLUSION
During the long Communist period, the Soviet Union had almost no citi-
zen participation of any kind because this was a monopoly of the Party.
Interestingly, what little participation there was tended to be about the
environment. Ordinary people demonstrated for cleaning up Lake Baikal,
objected to draining the Aral Sea, or joined the Socio-Ecological Union. The
Party considered it a safety valve. Moreover, during the last decade or two
of Communist domination, the rigid oppression was loosening a little and
consumers were given a few choices. When the end of the USSR came, the
trigger was an environmental catastrophe: the 1986 meltdown of the nuclear
reactor at Chernobyl. Free elections did not occur until Communist power
ended, so this was not a means of participating. Since then there have been
multiple elections, although many appear to have been corrupt. They have
not been an avenue for expressing popular opinions on the environment.
Interest groups were also suppressed during the Communist era. While
the Socio-Ecological Union had the outward form of an interest group,
it was not very effective. Although there were many groups, they were
small, lacked resources, and could not organize on a national scale. This
contrasts with the Soviet satellite of Czechoslovakia where Brontosaurus
had many members. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, environmental
groups have enjoyed only limited success. With the economic collapse
and slow recovery, poor medical care, the rise of organized crime, and
Putin's move toward dictatorial control, ordinary people have faced too
many more serious problems.
As long as the Communist Party imposed its ideology, manufacturing
material goods out ranked pollution control. Today, political parties pay
little attention to environmental protection. The biggest, United Russia,
claims to favor a market economy, which is not necessarily the best way to
protect the environment. Other parties make no claims in their platforms.
The tiny Green Party decided not to contest elections any more.
Negotiations with the United States and Britain leading to the 1963 Test
Ban Treaty had an environmental dimension. Soviet propaganda had