Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
On the other hand, some of the changes may be seen as the inevitable result of
overreaching plans and programmes by the central government, which it was
thereafter forced to retract. Russia's present poverty may be a record of false
leads from the past. Investments in Siberia and Central Asia are likely to be
greatly reduced in value, once the cis is opened to the West and to competition,
which will force the costs of eastern development to be taken into account. These
regions are likely to suffer in the near future as their support is diminished. Some
areas of European Russia may also suffer where they have been built up around a
single industry such as steel, or where large-scale industry and mass production
methods have been adopted for consumer goods, out of consonance with
Western demands for highly differentiated and fashion goods.
Russia's current poverty and the need to invest in restructuring also means
that there can be no early solution to some of the major environmental problems,
which have never been properly addressed (Pryde 1997). Besides the Aral Sea
question, discussed above, there are major regional pollution problems. Amongst
the most notorious are those associated with Chernobyl and nuclear fallout, with
the heavy industries and air and water pollution in the Ural Mountains, and with
Lake Baikal in Siberia where forest-cutting and pulp mills are still active at the
lakeside. But many of the cities suffer from air and water pollution, and the
Volga River has pollution problems along most of its length.
