Shies Protest: Blocking Moscow's Waste to Defend Northern Russia's Environment

The Shies protest in Russia represents a major case of grassroots environmental resistance under authoritarian rule prior to 2022. This article examines how local communities mobilised against a state‐backed landfill project in the Arkhangelsk region and asks how this mobilisation emerged, developed and succeeded despite increasing repression. It highlights how the movement was initiated and sustained by local and regional residents rather than by established environmental or political organisations. The analysis draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2019, including participant observation at protest camps and road blockades, interviews with participants and follow‐up digital ethnography. The article shows that the movement's success relied on rooted practices—site occupation and road blockades—combined with horizontal organisation, strong regional identity and everyday ecological attachments. These dynamics enabled residents to disrupt construction and assert forms of local governance. It argues that while such mobilisation was possible before 2022, the wartime reconfiguration of Russian society has largely foreclosed these forms of collective action, through both intensified repression and increased public engagement in support of the war.