Environmental Activism in Russia since the 2022 Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

How has environmental civil society in Russia changed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022? Even before the invasion, the space for environmental civil society - particularly foreign-funded organizations or movements - was constrained. This article investigates the impacts of the war across three types of environmental civil society actors: 1) activists who remain in Russia; 2) activists-in-exile who have fled Russia; and 3) international funders of environmental civil society in Russia. Evidence is drawn from the author’s existing published work, previous and ongoing in-depth interviews with these actors, and analysis of available open-source data.