Climate change politics in Putin’s Russia: a civil society perspective

Abstract

The Russian Federation is one of the world’s largest exporters of hydrocarbon energy, and its economy is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. However, in the late 2010s the Putin regime began signaling concern about climate change and joined the Paris Agreement. At the same time, the authoritarian Putin regime has taken great lengths to prevent challenges to its supremacy that could arise from civil society, even on tame topics like the environment. Given these contradictory factors, the relationship between the state and environmental activists is in question. This study explores how environmental activists relate to their authoritarian government and its climate change response in hydrocarbon-dependent Russia. This question is contextualized in a novel theoretical framework of authoritarianism, hydrocarbon superpower culture, climate virtue signaling, and uncivil society that explains Russian climate change politics and how they may affect climate activists. The empirical study is a survey of 12 Russian environmental activists sharing their experiences with and views on the regime and its climate change response. The findings indicate an “uncivil” society split between repressed and co-opted groups, with dissenting activists condemning the regime’s duplicitous climate change rhetoric and the greed that keeps the hydrocarbon system in place. While many environmental activists disapprove of the regime and its environmental policies, activism in Russia is crippled and politicians prioritize the war. These findings shed light on the centrality of authoritarianism to civic life in Putin’s Russia at a time of war and climate crisis.