Kremlin Priorities
Environmental protection remains an unmet secu-
rity need in Russia. Economic hard times in the 1990s
turned the focus to reviving the economy; internal ter-
rorism also became a major concern. It is not altogether
surprising that Putin, a former KGB official, emerged
in this political climate. Sustainability had not become
established as a strong national goal in the 1990s, and
it did not survive the rise of Putin. Yet, environmental
health is of great importance to the future of Russia,
especially given its heavy reliance on selling natural
resources to power its economy and meet its defense
needs.
Putin’s government emphasized policies to reclaim
Russia’s great power status. Reasserting a global role
meant directing resources to rebuild the military and
defense establishment. Maintaining, modernizing and
decommissioning defense equipment and weapons
demanded substantial funding. Given the strained
economic conditions coming out of the collapse of the
Soviet Union, and the struggle to create new economic
and political systems in the 1990s, the most likely fund-
ing source for this effort was to use Russia’s rich natu-
ral resource base to fund state priorities. This policy
direction had broad implications, from the needs that
could not be funded, e.g., environmental programs, to
natural resources associated with the rush to exploit
resources and introduce new technologies.
An unreliable economic and legal framework
made attracting outside funding difficult to achieve.
While the Kremlin has sold national resources (e.g.,
oil, gas and wood) to raise funds for modernization,
massive amounts of resources that might have been
made available to create a more stable economy for