In Russia’s coal-mining heartland, opponents of plan to revive a Soviet hydropower plant are being silenced, 27 May 2024

Like other infrastructure projects in the U.S.S.R., the Krapivinskaya hydropower plant was born at a time when the Soviets dreamt of bending the natural world to its will to fuel industrial growth. 

Decades later, this rusting hulk of concrete and iron still looms above the Tom River in Siberia’s coal-rich Kemerovo region, half-finished and half-forgotten.

This may soon change, as the Russian government seeks to diversify the local economy in Kemerovo (Kuzbass) away from coal. And big business, aiming to align itself with the fight against climate change, sees hydropower as a way to reduce its carbon emissions.

The push for Krapivinskaya is driven by the interests of aluminum giant Rusal and its parent company En+, which seeks to produce aluminum using renewable hydropower and boast of its low carbon footprint to international markets, experts and activists told The Moscow Times.

Meanwhile, those in the local community who speak out against the project, wary of its environmental impact, have been subjected to intimidation...

The activist requested anonymity due to the possibility of repercussions for speaking to foreign media...

In recent years, businesses like the state-owned hydropower company RusHydro and the aluminum giant Rusal have voiced an interest in completing the Krapivinskaya plant...

Officials in Kuzbass argue that the project will improve water quality, form strategic freshwater reserves and create 3,300 new jobs. 

However, some residents, skeptical of these purported benefits, have turned to legal means to halt the project.

Yet their efforts have not gone unchallenged by Russia’s law enforcement agencies...

During public hearings on the Krapivinskaya project held in February 2022 across several districts in Kuzbass, certain residents encountered obstacles in attending.

Some were shut out of the hearings, while others were stopped by traffic police en route and sent to a narcology clinic for drug tests.

"It was the first time I had witnessed such blatant and undisguised lawlessness. When activists first called and registered for the hearings, they were told, 'Okay, come.' But when they arrived, the door was closed," the anonymous activist said.

In March, police raided the apartment of Maxim Andrianov, a local public interest lawyer. He also received threats from unknown individuals and had his tire slashed in 2022. Some link the pressure on Andrianov to his opposition to Krapivinskaya.

Activists say that the project is more likely to harm the environment than benefit it. Residents of the settlements that will be submerged if the hydropower plant is completed have also voiced opposition... 

For now, activists have managed to delay the project, winning several cases where courts deemed the 2022 public hearings in several districts illegal...

Attempting to paint the Krapivinskaya hydropower plant as a low-carbon energy source is “complete nonsense,” ecologist Yevgeny Simonov told The Moscow Times. 

The flooding required to construct the plant would release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, Simonov said. 

"There will be huge methane emissions coming from decaying organic matter at the bottom [of the created reservoir]. Additionally, there will be many shallow areas, so this methane will quickly reach the surface,” Simonov said...