A strategy to rebuild the economy before attend-
ing to environmental problems should be put in the
context of Russia’s vastness, and its extraordinary
treasure of natural resources. It is the largest country
in the world, with only 2.4% of world population. It
has 12% of global oil reserves, 35% of world’s gas sup-
ply, 16% of world’s coal, 14% of its uranium, 22% of its
forests, and 23% of its undamaged ecosystems. It also
has 2.5 million rivers (214 of which are over 310 miles
long) and three million lakes, including the world’s
largest fresh water lake, Lake Baikal, which has 20% of
the world’s fresh water. Thanks to a visionary scien-
tist, it also has the oldest seedbank, with a network of
research facilities, and well over 300,000 ‘accessions’
of plant genetic material (Sinitsyna 2007b; Roslof
2007; and Tyukhov 2007).
Russia’s large oil and gas reserves are a valuable
asset for financing key initiatives, including military
modernization. These energy resources are important
elements of an environmental security calculus in that
the Russian government has used access to these criti-
cal energy resources as a foreign policy tool to pres-
sure states to follow a policy direction, and avoided
any threat of military intervention.
President Putin’s success in building the economy
(which was arguably due more to windfall profits from
international oil prices than by his astute economic
policy), reduction in violence in Chechnya and subse-
quent increase in Russia’s global power status brought
him national support. Putin was able to maintain his
power, despite the requirement that he step down
as president, by making an alliance to share power.
Since winning the 2008 election, the Medvedev-Putin
partnership (referred to as “the Tandem”) has contin-
ued the basic policies of the Putin regime.
sharon
(sharon)
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