Press Release, 14.11.2023

On 13 November, a conference and public forum The Alexei Yablokov Day were held at the Darwin Museum in Moscow as part of the events dedicated to the 90^th anniversary of Acad.Alexei Yablokov (1933-2017), a renowned Russian ecologist and founder of the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party. In 2006, Alexei Yablokov, together with a large group of like-minded people, joined the Yabloko party and until his last day headed the Green Russia Faction of the Yabloko party, while remaining a recognised leader of the environmental movement in Russia.

The conference was attended by environmental scientists, public figures and politicians. The Alexei Yablokov Day conference was opened by Anna Klyukina, Sergei Inge-Vechtomov, Director of the State Darwin Museum, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Council on Environment and Natural Resources of the St. Petersburg Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Victor Danilov-Danilyan, a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economic Sciences, professor and scientific director of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The conference was moderated by Yevgeniy Schwartz, head of the Centre for Responsible Environmental Management of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Honoured Ecologist of the Russian Federation, and an independent director – member of the Boards of Directors of Norilsk Nickel and RUSAL.

The event was divided into several panels dealing with different spheres of work of Acad. Alexei Yablokov: Science, Science and Society, Politics and Close Associates and Successors.

Opening the panel Science, Andrei Vasiliyev, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Developmental Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that Academician Yablokov was a scientist of a new style: he aimed not only to change the world, but also to fight for positive changes. Although Yablokov’s social and political role overshadows him as a scientist and populariser of science, such conferences will make it possible to turn to the scientific legacy of Alexei Yablokov.

Academician Yablokov, based on an analysis of different types and forms of variability in organisms, substantiated and developed new areas of population biology – phenetics of natural populations and population morphology. Phenetics allows to track differences between populations based on a set of external characteristics (phenes).

Alexei Streltsov, professor of the Department of Biology and Ecology and Doctor of Biological Sciences, delivered a report “Phenetic Studies in the Aspect of Their Application to Assessing Environmental Quality”. The scientist noted that with the help of phenetics tools it is possible to assess the influence of the environment on living beings over a long period of time.

Olga Titova, Candidate of Biological Sciences and a leading researcher at the Beringia National Park, spoke about the use of phenetic methods for studying cetaceans. She noted that a number of genetic studies have proven the validity of the conclusions of a phenetic analysis of the existence of species and subspecies of humpback whales. Currently, this area of science developed in such a type of research on cetaceans as photo identification.

Researchers Randy Reeves from the Cetacean Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Canada, and Robert Brownell from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA, shared their memories of Academician Yablokov’s work on whale studies. The collaboration of the Soviet scientist with his Western colleagues began in the late 1960s and continued until 2016.

“Alexei Yabloko was perhaps the best known, out of most scientists in the field of animal and natural biology, for his uncompromising views on conservation and his ideas on evolutionary biology,” Robert Brownell said.

Yablokov’s Western colleagues also noted the Academician’s contribution to the study of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.

Timothy Mousseau, Doctor of Biology, professor, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club, spoke about the latest advances in understanding the Chernobyl consequences. Academician Yablokov collaborated with Musso.

“He spent years collecting and organising all the information about Chernobyl to create a book that was the first to comprehensively summarise all available information, especially from Slavic sources, which were largely unknown and unavailable in the West. When I read this chapter, I realised that this is an extremely important contribution to knowledge that needs to be shared… And I consider it one of my main achievements that I helped in the process of publishing this masterpiece in English,” Timothy Mousseau stressed.

Timothy Mousseau also admitted that Yablokov’s legacy inspired many scientists in the West to work on studying the Chernobyl accident. Professor Mousseau presented a number of studies that he conducted together with his colleagues and which proved the enormous negative impact of a nuclear disaster on nature and people.

Anton Korsakov, professor of the Department of Disaster Medicine of the Russian National Research Medical University and Doctor of Biological Sciences, continued the topic of the consequences of the man-made accident at Chernobyl with a report on congenital malformations in radioactively contaminated areas after the disaster. 35 years after the Chernobyl disaster, about 5 million people still live in the radioactively contaminated territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Researchers have found a significant increase in the incidence of congenital anomalies in infants born in contaminated areas. While the Russian Government is adopting resolutions that remove large areas from the zone of radioactive contamination, people continue to experience the consequences of the nuclear disaster.

Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, made a report on climate change, the problem that Academician Yablokov also dealt with.

The Science and Society panel of the conference was opened by Vsevolod Stepanitsky, Co-Chairman of the “Expert Council on Nature Reserves” and  Honoured Ecologist of the Russian Federation. He spoke about the initiatives to protect nature reserves, which were supported by Academician Yablokov when he was an adviser to President Yeltsin on environmental policy. Although conservation was not a priority for Yablokov, with his support it was possible to save many valuable ecocenoses. Four years ago, a proposal was made to name the Shantar Islands National Park after Alexei Yablokov. The archipelago in the Sea of Okhotsk received the status of a national park in 2013. The sea area of the islands is abundant with whales. The initiative to name the national park after Academician Yablokov in 2019 was ignored by the Ministry of Nature. Vsevolod Stepanitsky proposed that it was time to once again submit this initiative, but now to send a letter to the Chairman of the Russian Government.

A report on joint actions of scientists and public activists in the movement to protect marine mammals from exploitation in the entertainment industry (over the past decade) was made by Tatyana Beley, Director and co-founder of the ANO Scientific and Environmental Centre for the Rescue of Dolphins and Other Marine Mammals “Delfa”.

Mikhail Gelfand, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and one of the founders of the free network community “Dissernet”, spoke about the problem of borrowings and manipulating data in dissertations in the field of healthcare (the cases of borrowing and distorting graphs, descriptions of them, medical histories, and research designs).

Scientists, ecologists, public activists and politicians spoke in the Politics panel of the conference. The reports were devoted to the political activities of Alexei Yablokov and modern environmental-political trends in Russia.

Grigory Yavlinsky, Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party, called Alexei Yablokov the founder of the scientific field “political ecology”. As is well-known, political economy, which appeared in the 19th century, had a huge impact on the life of all mankind; its emergence led to revolutions and creation of new geopolitical systems. Nowadays, ecology is becoming a powerful political factor, Grigory Yavlinsky noted.

Acad.Yablokov proved this using the example of global warming, which can cause a large wave of migration of residents of the Russian Arctic to the European part of Russia and cause the emergence of new dangerous epidemics.

At the beginning of 2019, about 2.5 million Russians lived in the Arctic zone, providing almost a tenth of the country’s GDP. Most of these people lived in large cities such as Murmansk, Norilsk, Vorkuta and Salekhard.

The total area of frozen rocks in Russia is about 11 million square kilometers, which is almost two-thirds of the territory of Russia. There is a serious risk of the so-called “thawing” of permafrost, which could reduce the bearing capacity of the foundations of all buildings and structures that are located above the Arctic Circle in permafrost conditions and create a risk of emergency situations, Yavlinsky said. Using the example of the research conducted by one of the richest Russian enterprises, Norilsk Nickel, Yavlinsky showed that neither business nor the authorities realise the seriousness of the current situation.

In addition, as global temperatures increase, there is a risk of awakening of ancient pathogens that are found in large numbers and diversity in the permafrost. They may come to the surface, giving rise to new diseases.

“If all these hypotheses are correct, and what I read from Alexei Yablokov’s wroks and what we talked about confirms this, and there is a consensus in the world on this issue, then a large flow of citizens will move from the permafrost zone to the south, and then to the European part of Russia,” Yavlinsky said. “Are the Russian authorities preparing for such a scenario? I can only say that they are now conducting a special military operation. Or maybe we need to prepare for this?” Yavlinsky noted.

Andrei Talevlin, a member of the Federal Bureau of the Yabloko party and Candidate of Legal Sciences, spoke about lawmaking as an expression of the state’s environmental policy. He noted several trends in the development of Russian legislation in the field of environmental and use of natural resources such as the persistence of conflicting issues, the unstable nature of the development of legislation and anti-democratic changes (the emergence of the label of foreign agents and undesirable organisations).

Doctor of Law, Professor Tamara Zlotnikova spoke about the de-ecologicalisation of environmental legislation as a threat to national security. First, she spoke about the process of “going green” in the field of legislation, education, and management of processes in the state, which took place in Russia in 1990s. De-ecologicalisation has been going on for more than 20 years, including the abolition of two relevant government’s departments dealing with protection of environment, the lifting of the ban on the import of spent nuclear fuel, the closure of environmental funds, the abolition of federal targeted environmental programmes, the proclamation of urban planning to be above all environmental standards and legislation, the adoption of water and forestry codes based on market needs, rather than an environmentally friendly approach, and the adoption of laws timed to coincide with the Sochi Olympics.

“In 2017, there was published the strategy for the economic security of the Russian Federation until 2030, that is, it is valid now. Among the challenges and threats it clearly indicates that the development of energy-saving technologies, the development of green technologies, the establishment of excessive requirements in the field of environmental safety and the rising costs of ensuring environmental standards in production and consumption, i.e., everything that acts to ensure the environmental rights of citizens, present a threat to the country’s economy,” Zlotnikova noted.

Separately, she marked the laws adopted in 2023. The current changes to the law on Baikal can be called the “Law on the destruction of Baikal,” Tamara Zlotnikova stressed. The same can be said about the amendments to the law on environmental expertise adopted in the first reading.

“For the first time, I don’t know what to offer as an answer to the question “what to do?” Zlotnikova said, suggesting that de-ecologicalisation would be replaced by greening, probably after a major disaster, as was the case after the Chernobyl accident.

Yelena Gray, a representative of the Ecological Crisis Group and a member of the Socio-Ecological Union of Russia, made a report “Environmental Activism and Monitoring of Pressure on Environmental Activists”. Since 2021, experts have recorded 39 environmental organizations labelled “foreign agents”, 28 of them are closed as of today, four organisations and two individuals remain on the register and six organizations managed to withdraw from the list of “foreign agents”, but only three out of them go on functioning.

“When environmental organisations began to weaken and against the background of de-ecologisation of legislation, environmental problems began to worsen. They are no longer resolved at the initial stage, which led to an increase in grassroots protests. Grassroots protests have increased and pressure on environmental activists has increased. And from this moment on, our environmental crisis group has been monitoring the pressure not on environmental organisations, but on grassroots activists and initiative groups,” Yelena Gray said.

She also noted that in 2022, the group recorded over 300 episodes of pressure on environmental activists: criminal cases were filed, there was one episode of deprivation of citizenship, and one activist died. Gray noted that experts annually record the death of one environmental activist. Among the dangerous trends, the expert also noted the use of punitive psychiatry against environmental activists. Since 2019, five cases have been recorded. In the past months of 2023, three such cases were recorded.

Separately, Yelena Gray recalled the case of journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was involved in the protection of the Khimki forest near Moscow from cutting and was beaten on this day 15 years ago, which later led to his death. Those who ordered and performed this crime have not yet been found.

“On the anniversary of the attack on Beketov, the environmental crisis group published a list of killed environmental defenders. Most of the attacks that lead to death are still uninvestigated,” Gray said.

Experts demand a fair investigation, punishment of the perpetrators and investigation of environmental offenses associated with the persecution of activists.

In 2022, the expert group recorded 50 eco-victories of different levels. In addition, in 2021-2022, two cases were recorded in which attackers of environmental activists were caught and sentenced to imprisonment.

The panel Close Associates and Successors of the conference was opened by Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party, human rights activist and environmentalist. Rybakov made a report “The Policy of Saving People as the Legacy of Alexei Yablokov”, talking about the activities of the Yabloko party and its Green Russia Faction.

Nikolai Rybakov began his speech by reading out the names of environmental activists killed over the past ten years: Mikhail Beketov and Irina Zelenina from the Moscow region, Igor Sapatov from Tatarstan, Nikolai Podolsky and Sergei Malashenko from the Murmansk region, Zemfira Gallyamova from Bashkortostan, Svetlana Ryzhikova and Vadim Volodin from the Krasnodar Territory, Denis Shtroo from Kaluga, Sergei Pakholkov from Vologda , Zahid Urazbakhtin from Moscow, and Andrei Garyaev from the Krasnodar Territory. All of them were environmental activists – they fought against landfills or the development and building up of green areas, protected natural reserves or stray animals. Only in one out of twelve cases was the murderer punished.

Nikolai Rybakov also spoke about the environmental work that Yabloko continues – about the activities of the Green Russia faction founded by Alexei Yablokov, anti-corruption investigations, protection of animals and support of shelters for homeless animals, drawing attention to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, supporting separate waste collection and about many other things.

According to the Chairman of Yabloko, environmentalists will face a new task in the near future – overcoming the catastrophic consequences caused to the environment by actions during the armed conflict in Ukraine.

Rybakov concluded his speech by formulating the rules that, in his opinion, guided Alexei Yablokov in his life – political, scientific and public: professionalism and professional integrity, responsibility for one’s actions, conviction in one’s work and personal modesty.

Alexander Yemelyanenkov, a journalist, researcher, member of the organising committee of  the “Yablokov-Year” spoke about the “Yablokov Garden” as a memorial project and a form of networking between associates and supporters of Academician Yablokov’s ideas. Yemelyanenkov showed the interactive map “The Yablokov Garden Broadens Its Boundaries”, created and updated by Alexei Yablokov’s associates and students.

Steve Call, a former head of the international department of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, delivered a report on international cooperation between the US and Russia in the field of nature conservation, which began and developed largely thanks to Alexei Yablokov efforts.

A ceremony of awarding environmental defenders and young winners of environmental competitions in Russia also took place as part of the Yablokov Day. The ceremony was conducted by Tatyana Chestina, Chair of the Board of the EKA Movement. Dilbar Klado, Chair of the Presidium of the Yablokov Foundation, addressed the activists with a welcoming speech.

Dilbar Klado also made a report on the activities of the Foundation. At the end of the Yablokov Day, Moscow initiative groups fighting for the preservation of national parks were awarded certificates of honour from the Foundation, after which friends, colleagues and associates of Academician Yablokov continued their communication.

The Alexei Yablokov Day at the Darwin Museum has become an event combining environmental, memorial and scientific-educational actions dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Yablokov, a biologist, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and an outstanding public and political figure.