Mapping Environmental Protests in Russia

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Abstract
Environmental protests have been a major strand of contention in Russia, yet the cross-regional variation in ecoprotests has not been systematically studied. In this paper, combining several protest event datasets we analyze the patterns of environmental activism across time and regions. The data cover more than 1000 protest events with an environmental agenda in the period 2007–2021. Based on these data, we develop a typology of Russian regions with the intensity and consistency of environmental mobilization as key dimensions. In the next step, we explore the covariates of ecoprotests in Russian regions and show that the overall level of mobilization, inequality, and governors’ tenure and links to the coercive apparatus are consistent predictors of ecoactivism. We also document the interaction between inequality and the strength of governor-siloviki ties indicating that in regions with high inequality, the negative effect of the latter is more pronounced. This paper contributes to the studies of environmental and subnational politics in Russia and demonstrates the need to account for spatial heterogeneity even against the backdrop of the consolidated autocratic regime.

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