Stoecker, Sally and Shakirova, Ramziya (eds) Environmental Crime and Corruption in Russia: Federal and Regional Perspectives (review)

Abstract

SEER, 95, 2, APRIL 2017 394 constructivist scholarship largely based on an inter-subjective understanding of identity construction. Since Europe — as a concept and as a social space with its multiple boundaries — is shaped and moulded in the process of communication between all actors involved, we should definitely keep an eye on the potential of in-between states, especially those who signed Association Agreements with the EU, to influence the debate and to lobby in Brussels and other capitals for their vision of future European polity. Johan Skytte Institute of Political Science Andrey Makarychev University of Tartu Stoecker, Sally and Shakirova, Ramziya (eds). Environmental Crime and Corruption in Russia: Federal and Regional Perspectives. Routledge Transitional Crime and Corruption, 8. Routledge, London and New York, 2014. xiii + 151 pp. Maps. Figures. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Index.£90.00. Crime and corruption has formed an element of Russia’s natural resource landscape since the fall of the Soviet Union. Much of the critical attention has been directed towards the unregulated use of Russia’s forest and protected land resources underpinned by an uncertain socio-economic situation, a strained regulatory framework, and opportunistic behaviour within the context of Russia’s vast territory. Nevertheless, as the editors note, there is a need for more work in this general area in order to open up the nature of corrupt and criminal activity as it plays out at the regional and national levels. The edited collection is comprised of seven main chapters with the majority authored by Russia-based academics and practitioners. The opening chapter attempts to set the scene for the other contributions. The chapter makes limited effort to situate itself within the existing scholarship concerning the Soviet and post-Soviet environment and remains at a rather general level. It establishes the limitations of both Soviet and contemporary environmental legal infrastructure and also rehearses the links between environmental indicators and health within the Russian Federation. In concluding, the chapter suggests the need for an ‘environmental surveillance framework […] to involve civil society, proactive nature protection and environmental enforcement agencies, and governmental stakeholders representing communities, municipal, regional, and federal authorities in monitoring air and water quality and the industries that contaminate them; reporting and acting on threats or damages to the human habitat’ (pp. 16–17). It is difficult to disagree with such a broad statement and it would have been useful to explore the reasons (both historical and contemporary) preventing the formation of such an effective surveillance REVIEWS 395 framework in a little more detail. In a similar way, the subsequent chapters would have benefited from a more developed framework from which to assess the types of corrupt and criminal activity under discussion. Five of the six main empirical chapters focus on the nuclear, forest and heavy industrial branches of industry within different parts of Russia, with the final chapter reflecting on public health and environment in the middle Volga region. An edited collection of this nature has the difficult task of trying to account for the country’s immense size and regional diversity, factors which can have a profound influence on the nature of the environmental crimes under scrutiny. The various empirical chapters encompass the Volga, Urals and east Siberian regions and, as such, do at least provide a sense of the range of issues that characterize the contemporary situation. Two of the chapters (‘Russia’s nuclear industry and the environment’ and ‘Forest auctions in Russia’) operate at a more general level and provide some useful insight into national trends. The various chapters vary in terms style and consistency and yet together they provide an interesting insight into aspects of Russia’s contemporary environmental situation. An effort is made in most chapters to provide policy recommendations in order to address the highlighted issues, and there is also a tendency towards technical detail and description. In this vein, Tulaeva’s chapter on ‘Forest auctions in Russia’ provides a detailed insight into the operation of this phenomenon and associated corrupt practice. Similarly, Pervushina’s chapter concerning ‘Environmental crimes in the territory adjacent to the petroleum-storage facility in the town of Kama…’ and the chapter by Samokhin and Nakhabov on ‘Russia’s nuclear industry’ go into considerable detail...