Theoretically, the accepted response to the question of settling conflicts between commercial and environmental interests in Russia is the concept of sustainable development. However, in practice, the concept is not properly developed in Russian national laws.28 In 1990, a decree by the president of the USSR was adopted in which a list of measures was indicated that could lead to establishing legal instruments of sustainable development. In 1990-91, some steps were taken to adapt the foreign experience of environmental impact assessment procedure to Russia, as well as an environmental management system, liability for past environmental damage, etc.
In particular, ecological expertise as an instrument of harmonizing commercial and environmental interests was discussed in detail. In the long run, the relevant Russian legal model was construed as a mixture of
these two procedures. The law provided for public inputs, provided by nongovernmental organizations, scientists, representing communities, and so forth. That procedure was able to prevent the realization of projects that would be harmful for the environment. In the Russian variant, the ecological expertise initially covered a wide spectrum of commercial activity, and also included plans and programs of regional development, and in this aspect it came rather close to a strategic environmental assessment.
In the late 1990s, however, a new strategy was adopted in Russia aimed at intensifying economic development. A new management strategy was launched. As the economic interests of Russia’s mighty companies got priority, environmental limitations were almost subordinated to their economic activity, including the environmental impact procedure. The list of activities that should be covered by this procedure was cut down. In the energy sector, for example, only drilling and gas activity on the continental shelf of the Russian Federation remained covered by this procedure.
In recent years, environmental organizations have insisted constantly on returning to the original version of the list of activities subject to ecological expertise, referring to international experience, especially in the Arctic. Later, several initiatives were launched to draft Russian Arctic environmental laws in order to harmonize them with development projects.
A working group of legal experts was created by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development that worked for more than a year with a task to formulate a draft law on protection of the Arctic environment. The mandate of this group was rather wide: national legislation in force, international law applicable to the Arctic area, foreign legislation and comparative legal analysis. On this basis, an attempt was made to draft a law, which, however, was not adopted.
In sum, the current state of Russian environmental legislation is criticized by Russian specialists. They note, for example, that in the RF there is no special legislative act establishing the specificities of a legal regime for the protection of Arctic ecosystems.29 In the legal system of Russia, relationships in the sphere of Arctic environmental protection are regulated mainly by general rules of national environmental legislation. In other words, the Arctic environment is an object of regulation by a number of national laws applicable both to the Arctic and to the Black Sea, such as the Water Code, Forest Code, and Land Code of the Russian Federation, and the federal laws “On environment protection,” “On production and consumption of wastes,” “On specially protected natural territories,” “On
protection of the atmospheric air,” “On fauna,” “On ecological expertise,”
“On Internal sea waters, Territorial sea and Contiguous zone of the Russian Federation,” “On Continental shelf of the Russian Federation,” “On Exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation,” “On Subsoil.”
At the level of presidential documents, such acts are often cited as Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, such as “On state strategy of the Russian Federation on protection of the environment and maintenance of sustainable development,” “On climatic doctrine of the Russian Federation,” and “Fundamentals of the state policy in the sphere of environmental development of the Russian Federation for the period till 2030.” At the level of documents of the government of the RF, such orders are cited as “On Environmental doctrine of the Russian Federation,” and
“On adoption of Water strategy of the Russian Federation for the period till 2020,” having sometimes a declaratory wording.30 In contrast, the federal law
“On specially protected natural territories” consolidates some specific rules on the organization of specially protected natural territories in the Russian Federation, and also establishes a regime for their protection and use.31 But the final conclusion of specialists is not optimistic: for the 10- year period of the realization of the Environmental Doctrine of the Russian Federation (starting in 2002) the instrument of strategic environment assessment “was not duly consolidated in the legislation” and, therefore, “it has not been at all incorporated in the national nature protection practice.” 32
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
There exist a number of institutions that contribute to developing the Arctic policy of the Russian Federation. Within the Russian government, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Transport play leading roles in this respect. The issues of current Arctic policy are also considered within the Analytical Center of the Government of the Russian Federation. There is also the Expert Council on Arctic and Antarctic of the Council of Federation–the Upper Chamber of the Russian Parliament (Federal Gathering of the Russian Federation), where ministerial officials are supposed to report on draft Arctic policy acts. As to international cooperation in the Arctic, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation that is the leading authority. According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, however, it is the president of the Russian
Federation who is determining the foreign policy of the country. It was recently suggested to create a new inter-ministerial body on coordination of activity in the Arctic zone of the RF.