‘The Climate Is Changing and the President Is Not’: ‘Non-Political’ Climate Activism in Russia

Abstract

Using the ‘Fridays for Future’ movement in Russia as a case study, this article asks how ‘civil’ society movements ‘avoid politics’ under growing authoritarianism when dealing with ‘politics’ becomes unavoidable. While activists refrain from voicing ‘political’ demands to avoid repression by the regime, they come to understand that their goals are unachievable unless they address broader ‘political’ issues. Based on an analysis of in-depth interviews with climate activists, we identify three frames of ‘avoiding politics’. Each frame relates climate change with broader political issues in a specific way.