13 articles tagged with environment were found.
This article analyses how environmental activism in Russia has been reshaped under wartime authoritarianism following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drawing on 34 semi-structured interviews with representatives of environmental organizations and initiatives conducted between 2022 and 2025, it examines how repression, co-optation, and nationalist politicization have transformed the field of environmental engagement. The article argues that the Russian state has reorganized the environmental field through the expansion of government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs) and the promotion of sovereignty-centered narratives such as sovereign ecology” and green patriotism. While repression remains the main driver of depoliticization, GONGOs redefine the boundaries of legitimate environmental engagement by embedding ecological discourse within narratives of national sovereignty. Independent NGOs and grassroots initiatives have responded differently. These dynamics reveal how wartime authoritarianism restructures environmental activism.
By
Doriana Althier, Maria Tysiachniouk and Juha Kotilainen
May 29, 2026
Based on a holistic case study of a climate movement in Russia that emerged several years before and dissolved shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this article explores the war’s impact on civil society activism. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key participants conducted both before and after the war, the study identifies three typical activist career paths which shape engagement with and disengagement from the movement.
The analysis of these career paths shows that the war did not introduce entirely new conditions but rather intensified problems the movement had already been struggling with. Moreover, it further raised the risks of protest participation and shifted activists’ attention from climate change to more urgent wartime concerns. The article contributes to understanding the Russo- Ukrainian war’s effect on Russian civil society. It also contributes to the literature on disengagement and demobilization in social movements by promoting a career approach and addressing the broader question of how a large-scale political event can lead to the demobilization of a social movement.
By
Svetlana Erpyleva
May 29, 2026
Despite the repressions against civil society in Russia, the independent environmental movement has managed to adapt and survive. The environmental agenda in Russia remains important for the people, for local politicians, and for authorities. These factors lay the groundwork for a potential mobilization, politicization, and demand for system change. To enact this transformation, however, the author argues that professional environmentalists need to combine forces with grassroots protestors and embrace a broader socio-economic and intersectional agenda.
Essay by
Vitaly Servetnik
May 29, 2026
Conference name: Stocktaking of Research on Energy Security, Justice and Sustainability in The Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe: What Is Missing?
Date and location: October 24–25, 2024, Södertörn University.
Organizer: The Energy and Climate Hub at Södertörn University .
Funding: Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University.
By
Sara Persson et al
April 16, 2025
This year, HELCOM celebrates its 50th anniversary. Rüdiger Strempel, the Executive Secretary of HELCOM, is here presenting the close cooperation and alignment between HELCOM and the European Union in working against a backdrop of increasing environmental threats due to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution on the one hand and geopolitical instability on the other hand.
By
Rüdiger Strempel
September 18, 2024
The conference From the grassroots to policy and back: Putting just transition to practice gathered social scientists
who in different ways struggled with the tensions implied in the concept of “just transition”. The conference took place in Katowice, Poland, in many ways at the epicenter of the transition.
By
Ella Pertrini
June 20, 2023
The roundtable “Inheriting the Pandora Box: Environmental Impacts of the Soviet Industrial Legacy”, explored the relevance of the Soviet environmental legacy for the way we as a society understand our relationship to the environment today.
By
Tatiana Sokolova, Wouter Blankestijn and Ksenia Zakharova
June 15, 2021
The authors want to draw attention to the conceptual gaps concerning perspectives of landscapes between academia and government officials and the farmers using the summer farming landscape for food production (small-scale animal husbandry) in Sweden and Norway. They discuss the discrepancies in the views on how this landscape should be governed in order to maintain and enhance its value and potential.
By
Håkan Tunón et al
January 27, 2014
A new treatment plant in St. Petersburg could eventually be built, despite initial resistance. It is the outcome of a successful joint project, funded by the Nordic Council and the EU. St. Petersburg's water consumption has also decreased significantly. A challenge remains for St. Petersburg; getting neighboring cities to clean their drains. Not many mil away waste flows directly into the Baltic Sea.
By
Ann-Louise Martin
November 7, 2013
Will the Baltic be sick or healthy in 2030? The World Wildlife Fund addressed the future of the sea in a seminar at this year’s Baltic Sea Festival.
By
Per Eklöf
September 28, 2012
Issue 2026, 1: 
Issue 2026, 2: 
Baltic Worlds covers; the Baltic Sea Region, Eastern Europe, Russia, CentralAsia, Caucasus and the Balkan area.