Kansainvälinen ympäristöyhteistyö Luoteis-Venäjällä : Venäjä ympäristövastuun kantajana

Abstract

The inability of Russia to take care of its environment motivated the neighbouring countries to international environmental cooperation in the beginning of the 1990s. In the last twenty years a complex structure of international environmental cooperation, funding arrangements and international environmental projects has developed. In the meantime, Russia has become richer and stronger, but its level of environmental protection is yet to reach Western standards. Russia’s environmental agency will be analyzed from the perspective of environmental responsibilisation: how common un-derstandings of problems have been developed; how responsibility has been shared between participants in international environmental cooperation in Northwestern Russia; and how capable Russia is to tackle its environmental problems on its own. In the light of interviews and survey results Russia appears to be an object rather than an independent environmental actor in international environmental cooperation, and is still very dependent on international assistance.