Aleksandra Koroleva heads one of Russia’s oldest environmental groups, Ecodefense!

The group, founded in 1989, has had “more than enough time to anger the Russian state,” he says.

In 2003, the organization forced the multinational energy company Lukoil to conduct an international investigation oil project in the Baltic Sea and invest in satellite technology to track leaks. In 2009, they worked with partners in Germany to prevent nuclear waste from importing to Russia.

Then, in the summer of 2014, Ecodefense was added to Russia’s “foreign agents” list.

The law on “foreign agents” passed in 2012 first targeted all organizations that received support from abroad or were under foreign influence and engaged in political activities in Russia. It has since been quietly extended to all parts of society, incl activists and the media.

“Foreign agents” must report their income and expenses, undergo financial audits, and sign long disclaimers in publications.

The law rose to a whole new level after that Ukrainian war started. Russia began using it to suppress any dissent or criticism of the regime, shutting down human rights and media groups and activism. “Foreign agents” were barred from key parts of public life.

What it’s like to be labeled a “foreign agent”

When it was first introduced, Aleksandra and representatives of other non-governmental organizations labeled as “foreign agents” joked that the sign was an “elite club” – a sign of the quality of their work.

“Then very soon it became clear that anyone in a civilian position could become a foreign agent,” he says.

They chose to act as if there was no law at all and refused to comply with its requirements.

“We did not comply with any of the absurd requirements of the law: we did not mark the site and publications with the offensive label “foreign agent”, we did not coordinate events with the Ministry of Justice, we did not send additional reports for inspection. bodies,” he explains.

It worked for five years, Aleksandra says. They successfully protected the climate and citizens’ rights. But the “absurd and colossal” fines began to mount. Before long, they were one million rubles (13,235 euros).

In 2018, the organization’s accounts were frozen, and in 2019, five criminal cases were brought against Aleksandra – one each for overdue fines. He was threatened with a prison sentence of up to two years.

“I didn’t want to get to know the Russian prison system more closely, so on June 5, 2019, instead of interrogations, I took a bus from Kaliningrad to Klaipeda, Lithuania,” he explains.

“And on June 8, I flew to Germany, where six months later I received the status of a political refugee.”

Eco defense! is one of the carriers in Russia for the first time climate case.

A lawsuit filed last September by a coalition of human rights organizations and activists challenges the country’s climate strategy, claiming that it is “critically inadequate”. If every country adopted Russia’s strategic approach, according to one report, the world would warm by 4 degrees.

The case also says that Russia’s insufficient climate measures “violate the Russian Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Suppressive measures against civil society pose considerable risks

The climate case was filed on September 11. Five days later, Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Human Rights. This case may turn out to be the last European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) hears from the country.

18 individuals and two organizations brought the lawsuit despite the considerable risks associated with the state’s crackdown on the opposition.

Russian politicians blamed the users behind the suit The “myth” of climate change launch “wide-scale legal sabotage”. Sergei Mironov, chairman of the Just Russia party, called it “direct preparation for a new propaganda campaign against our countries and direct blackmail of the Russian leadership.”

However, lobbyists go further than just challenging the consequences of a lack of ambitious climate action.

Aleksandra Koroleva from Ecodefense! says there are now 70 organizations on the list of foreign agents, 19 people on the personal registry and 172 people and organizations recognized as foreign media agents.

The authorities insist that the laws are not discriminatory. However, by 2021, 22 of the 32 environmental organizations originally added to the list had ceased operations. Others have struggled to survive by adapting to the tightening restrictions on their operations.

Have “foreign agent” laws tightened since the start of the war in Ukraine?

The persecution of activists and critics throughout civil society only increased when the “foreign agents” law was tightened last year.

Definitions were changed so that almost any person or entity – regardless of nationality or location – can be designated a “foreign agent”. “Political” activity now includes “opinions about the decisions or policies of the authorities”.

It means that anyone who engages in activism or speaks out against Russian policies can be classified as a “foreign agent.” All the authorities have to do is claim to be under “alien influence”.

The new law also prevents “foreign agents” from participating in important parts of public life. It includes prohibitions on activities such as joining the civil service, acting as an environmental impact assessment expert, teaching children, donating to political campaigns or even participating in organizing public meetings.

An important sign of this widespread crackdown on civil society groups came just last week.

Moscow’s Helsinki Group, Russia’s oldest and last independent human rights organization, January 25. was ordered to close. The formal reason given by the Moscow City Court judge was that the members had attended events “outside their area” without proper registration.

The group’s co-chairman, Valeri Borshov, told the court at the hearing that its dissolution was “a serious blow to the human rights movement not only in Russia but also in the world.”

The organization was one of the first to denounce the controversial “foreign agent” laws. It is also one of the plaintiffs in the climate issue.

Russian activists are calling for support

There have also been repressions outside of these laws.

Those who participate climate demonstrations According to reports, they face huge fines, arrests and damage to their property. Organizations tracking the persecution say community leaders have been assaulted, arrested and raided by police by unidentified individuals.

The Russian Social and Ecological Union documents the persecution of environmental activists in the country in monthly reports. Vitaly Servetnik is the vice president of the organization.

He says the reports prompted both a gradual weakening of environmental legislation and then the introduction of the “Foreign Agents” Act. They wanted to track this development first to show the “bigger picture” to the community.

“For my colleagues to see what is happening to us… but also to show the documentation to the authorities and the rest of the world.”

The goal is not just to spread information pressure activists face but to take a deeper look at the situation and suggest ways in which people can support activism.

“We don’t just publish information about pressure, we also say, okay, you can send this letter to the authorities or sign this petition, you can donate money to pay this fine,” says Vitali.

Do people still protest in Russia?

Activists continue to defend the environment in Russia. These projects are vital – especially outside the cities, closer to nature – and those involved have been working on them for years.

“From a European point of view, it’s really risky,” Vitaly explains. “But if you look at the countries of the Global South, people are not jailed or fined, but they are killed for what they do.“

Vitaly also points out that for someone who can’t breathe because of pollution or where the water isn’t drinkable, the threat of fines or jail time is nothing compared to the existential environmental threat.

The pressure they face is part of a longer story of environmental degradation and those working against it. There are good years and bad years.

And the persecution of environmental and non-governmental organizations in Russia has naturally increased since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

People are protesting less, Vitaly explains, and more criminal charges are being brought against activists. Instead of the previous one or two criminal cases, it is now five or more per month. There were more verdicts in 2022 than in previous years.

“We’ve still seen people protesting this year, even in this situation,” he says.

Could things have been different in Russia?

Eco defense! was one of 73 Russian NGOs that filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in 2013, before there was even a list of “foreign agents”.

Last year, The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the law was unnecessary in a democratic society. It stated that the classification of organizations as “politically active” and receiving “foreign funding” was based on an overly broad and unpredictable interpretation of these terms.

But for those who had started the case, the verdict may have come too late. When the European Court of Human Rights made its decision, half of the organizations that filed the complaint had ceased operations.

– The defeat of the strongest non-governmental organizations helped the dictatorship to stay in power and eventually start a full-scale war in Ukraine, which tightened the whole world with a nuclear threat, says Koroleva.

“The Foreign Agents Act destroyed the sophisticated framework of public organizations that was supposed to prevent a nascent democracy from sliding into the abyss.”

This article is part of The Inside Story, a Euronews Green series on climate-related issues. You might be interested in our other stories on the topic K-Pop fans are becoming climate activists and the French center concentrated tsunami forecasting and prevention.