Alexey sits on a couch at a friend’s rented apartment in St Petersburg, making a sign that says “Renew the protest energy” as he prepares for another Fridays For Future digital strike. The 21-year-old student has been engaged in climate activism ever since it has reached Russia - through the speeches of Greta Thunberg and mass climate protests which swept first across Europe and then the rest of the world. While most countries are slowly waking up to the alarming signs of climate crisis, which is already claiming thousands of people’s lives every year and threatens to destroy habitats of other species, Russia keeps pursuing its own course to protect revenues from oil and gas that today make up about 40% of the country’s budget.
Neither Russia’s most recent low-carbon development plan, nor its late and reluctant commitment to the Paris agreement, nor limited investment in renewables and research and development suggest that the country is anywhere close to becoming an equal partner in the joint effort to battle climate change and its impacts.
Conversely, now, in the context of amendments to Russia’s Constitution unfolding in the midst of the pandemic, international laws might soon officially fade on Russia’s territory: apart from giving Vladimir Putin the right to run for another two six-year presidential terms and granting him the right to fire judges from Constitutional and Supreme Courts, the new Constitution prioritises Russian law over international obligations, including decisions by the European Court of Human Rights. Hence the constitutional changes make the Kremlin the main legal authority in Russia, granting him the legitimacy to snub international agreements.
