Economic Transition and Pollution Control in the Russian Federation: Beyond Pollution Intensification?

As stated at the outset, this article extends understanding of pollution control as manifest within the Russian economy. In so doing it presents a dismal outlook for pollution control and the protection of the Russian environment. There is strong if not conclusive evidence to suggest that economic transition has generated a pollution-intensifying effect. Moreover, these data also intimate that pollution intensification is only a, rather than the, consequence of pollution control arising from economic transformation. Commentary in the article suggests that the state of the Russian economy has both weakened the environmental institutions and undermined foreign assistance in this area. Overall, therefore, we can conclude that the process of effecting a systematic shift towards a market-based economy has failed to take account of environmental protection and pollution control.