Shortly before the international meeting on climate change action in Brazil — commonly known as COP — Russian President Vladmir Putin said his country was best off focusing on its own interests, when it came to dialogue on the topic with Western nations.

Russia did send a delegation to Belem in Brazil, where COP30 is being held, but climate change action and environmental protection does not play a huge role in Russian self-interest.

Just over two years ago, Russian authorities declared several of the world's largest organizations working in this field "undesirable."That included Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, and Norway-based non-profit, the Bellona Environmental Foundation.

Still this has not stopped Bellona from reporting on Russia's environmental problems. Its analysts mostly use open-source information to do this, Bellona told DW. Meanwhile, the WWF says it is "no longer active in Russia" in response to a DW query.

In 2023 alone, 38 environmental organizations in Russia were classified as "foreign agents," the Russian Socio-Ecological Union, or RSEU, reported. Of those, 25 were forced to stop operations.

However, that does not mean that Russia's ecologists are not active at all, says Vladimir Slivyak, one of the cofounders of Russian organization, Ecodefense.

Ecodefense had already been classified as a "foreign agent" in 2014 because it received foreign funding and was later declared legally defunct.

Slivyak, who now lives in Germany, told DW that ecologists still have some space to point to environmental issues even though Ecodefense cannot, he noted, because it's been banned.

Environmental protest gone 'underground'

"There are climate protection activities in Russia, but they take place underground," he says. Some parts of his organization work from overseas and help with campaigns against Russian fossil fuels from abroad, for instance.

"There are tools with which one can monitor the environment from afar," Slivjak continued. "It's not always necessary to collect samples on site. There are satellites and many other analytical methods. So, it's not really a problem to find out what's happening to the environment in Russia."

All the international NGOs have been pushed out of Russia and local activists have been intimidated, imprisoned or driven into exile, the statement from Bellona says.

"Only those who adapt to the military and political situation are still active," the organization explains, adding that the pressure on Russian climate activists has been "unacceptably high" for years.

The organization Arctida, dedicated to the protection of the Arctic, has also been blocked from working in Russia.

However there are still activists there with whom Arctida is in contact, says Nail Farkhatdinov, coordinator of Arctida's analytical department. It's just that they are less visible, Farkhatdinov told DW.

"People are trying to become active at the local level to motivate others for change," he explains. "This work may not be visible from the outside but there are still isolated activities."

Climate change 'an opportunity'

Meanwhile environmental protection organizations that were banned are being replaced by "state-affiliated civil society structures," basically organizations established with the assistance of the Russian state. They are prone to "greenwashing," portraying Russian businesses' activities as more environmentally friendly than they actually are.

According to Farkhatdinov, these "state-affiliated" organizations are often even financed by companies dealing in raw materials and natural commodities. "This calls their independence into question," he points out.

All of this is creating what Farkhatdinov describes as an "alternative environmental agenda," one that is subordinate to Russian state interests.

One example he gives is how Russia is dealing with the melting of Arctic ice through higher temperatures caused by climate change. The Russian state doesn't see this as a problem, he says, but as an opportunity: It could mean that that cargo ships are able to traverse the Northeast Passage — the shortest maritime link between Europe and Asia, and an alternative to the Suez Canal — all year round.

"The state doesn't see climate change as a danger, they see it as a resource," Farkhatdinov argues.

According to the Norway-based organization Bellona, "the Russian authorities no longer even pretend to care about environmental issues."

On the global level, Russia feigns a strong commitment to environmental issues. But in reality, Russia is pursuing goals that will only exacerbate environmental damage, such as, for example, extracting fossil fuels in the Arctic.

"The situation has deteriorated dramatically," Ecodefense's Slivyak told DW, noting that over the last few years the Russian state has openly shown how little it cares about environmental issues. Russia itself is on the brink of major environmental problems, he adds.

"In reality, the Russian authorities are an enemy of the global environment," Slivyak says. "Every year, there are more extreme events as a result of climate change — landslides, mudslides, torrential rain, drought, desertification, declining crop yields, epidemics — and these damage both the Russian state budget and the health of ordinary Russians."

In his opinion Russia is actively sabotaging international efforts to save the environment.

Climate activists 'enemy of the state'

According to the Russian-language website, Activatica, an online platform covering grassroots activism in the country, there were 3,850 demonstrations last year. Of those, 580 were focused on the environment. Some of the best-known included protests against limestone mining at Kushtau mountain in Bashkortostan, against construction work in Tomilino forest park near Moscow, and against the construction of a landfill in Novosibirsk.

Slivyak believes that there are still a comparatively high number of environment-focused protests because the topic is often seen as apolitical. That's a perception that's been around since the collapse of the Soviet Union, he explains.

"Maybe that's the reason why there are still protests like this and why people are trying to do something for nature conservation, to prevent deforestation or stop the construction of dangerous facilities," he suggests.

But that's also just an illusion, he argues. Advocating for the environment in Russia today is just as dangerous as any other form of political activism, Slivyak maintains.

The Russian authorities are working towards a dictatorship that rules over a totally subservient society, he argues. "Anyone who engages in activities not authorized by the authorities automatically becomes an enemy of the regime."

According to the Environmental Crisis Group, a Russian initiative that's supports environmental activists, a total of 487 activists working in this area in Russia had to deal with politically motivated repression in 2022 and 2023. An additional 95 cases were reported in 2024.

This article was originally published in Russian.