Russia’s Environmental Security

Jul 28, 2020 | International Institute for Strategic Studies
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The summer of 2020 has been the hottest on record in most of Siberia. While the high temperatures have meant warm and sunny days, they have also resulted in the spread of dramatic wildfires throughout the Russian Far East and a disastrous oil spill that polluted local rivers and groundwater with some 21,000 tonnes of oil. While Russia’s position straddling the Arctic circle has made it uniquely suited to take advantage of the changing global climate, the country is also especially vulnerable to climate change’s ravages. 

Which elements of climate change pose the greatest threat to Russia and its ecosystems? What are the primary strategic ends and considerations of the Russian government in confronting environmental issues? And how has the rest of Russian society engaged with climate change? 

In this webinar the panellists will discuss the pressing environmental and climate challenges facing Russia, and the perception of and response to them by the Russian state and Russian society more broadly.

Angelina Davydova is the director of the Russian−German Office of Ecological Information (RNEI) and a leading climate journalist in Russia. She served as the Humphrey Fellow at UC Davis from 2018 to 2019 and was previously a Reuters Foundation fellow at University of Oxford. She specialises in covering economic and political aspects of global and Russian climate policies, including the United Nations climate negotiations, and has taught at universities and lead media training events in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Pavel Devyatkin is a Research Associate at the Arctic Institute, an independent think tank with a mission to influence policy for a secure and sustainable Arctic. His research on Arctic policy, security, and development has been published by the Center for Circumpolar Security Studies and the United States Department of Defense. He previously worked at the UN, where he was a researcher on environmental issues in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Dr Nigel Gould-Davies is the editor of the Strategic Survey and Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the IISS. After teaching at the University of Oxford, he served in the British Foreign Office, where his roles included Head of the Economic Department in Moscow and Ambassador to Belarus. He later held senior government relations roles in the international energy industry. He is the author of Tectonic Politics: Global Political Risk in an Age of Transformation.

Dr Eleanor Beevor is a Research Associate in the Conflict, Security and Development Programme at the IISS. She specialises in non-state armed groups, environmental protection in conflict and the intersection of armed conflict and climate change. 

This event is the second installment in the Climate Briefing series. Each month, we examine how environmental security affects our strategic environment, and what can be done to meet these challenges.

When: Tuesday 28 July, 2020,13:00 - 14:00 (BST)

Where: Online