November 16 in two villages of Komi — Krasnobor of the Izhma district and Ust-Usa of the Usinsk district — there will be rallies against the tyranny of oil companies. Locals believe that the big business representatives violate environmental laws and ignore their demands. At the last meeting of June 5, 2014 residents of Ust-Usa adopted a resolution which demanded that oil companies have to carry out a few points, such as to dismantle borehole №2 on the North-Ipatsk field. It is drowned in flood, and then there is a large plot of land under threat of pollution. However, all claims were ignored. That's why people have to protest again. The correspondent of «7x7» spoke to one of the organizers of the rally, social activist Yekaterina Dyachkova, who spoke about what she expected from the event.
— Why did you decide to join the protest in Ust-Usa again?
— Our rally has two objectives: to draw attention to the thing that the requirements of resolution of the meeting of 5 June 2014 are not fulfilled again, and to the continuous violation of the legislation in the sphere of housing in a rural location. Our rally is against the inaction of power structures in the solution of social problems of the village. We also associate social problems with environmental. In summer, there were some round tables, which were completely ineffective, and so we go to the rally again. This summer, there was oil again, the same situation with spills. And no one cleaned the old oil spills. "Oil Patrol" came [project of "Greenpeace Russia"] and found fresh new spots. None of environmental public hearing was held in our village. All hearings were held in Usinsk. Everything has been decided, but where, by whom, when — it is not clear.
— And why the rally? You don’t believe that your problems can be solved at the round table with representatives of the government and the oil companies?
— I don’t think that it’s possible to negotiate with them at the round table yet. Thus they dictate terms to us, and not us to them. Therefore, I believe that we need a rally. Because at the round table, there are two or three local residents, simple village women. Are we specialists? No. But we say, "Pay attention to this or that". But there is no attention. Their power is the amount, pressure.
— It's not even that someone is an expert, and some is not. I ask if, in your opinion, this form of round table is effective. Do you find direct action to be more effective? Taking to the streets.
— Yes, of course. If the form of the round table would be in the representation in which we see it, it would not happen.
— What threatens you and the health of the inhabitants of the Usinsk district because of the ignoring of the requirements of June 5?
— If further the demands will not be fulfilled, environmental conditions and social situation will worsen. We understand that the Pechora river will perish. Nowadays it is more and more difficult to live. The cost of living increases here at the general fall in income and lack of jobs.
— Do you feel that a head of the republic Vyacheslav Gaizer understands your problems?
— No, of course not. We had a live call-in with Roman Polshvedkin [Acting Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection]. I called in person, and others called, but we were answered without delving into the issue. They clarify the situation in general, but there is only one answer — you can’t change the situation. And Gaizer... Well, I don’t know. He doesn’t care what happens here. In my opinion, there is an absolute indifference on his part to the problems that we have here. He sends people to a live call-in and so forth, and there is no effect, nothing changes. And nothing will change, because the power and "Lukoil" is a unified whole.
— And aren’t you afraid to go to this rally? Because now in Russia it often happens that they are trying to open a criminal case against civic activists, environmentalists across the country, brought to administrative responsibility, not to let them go out of the house on the day of the rally. Are you scared before the rally?
— Of course, there is a sense of self-preservation, because there are threats, and quite serious. But if we will not fight, I don’t know... There is nothing else to do only to go to the rally. You see, we are forced to do it. We wouldn’t do it, but it's a mean of survival. Of course people worry, especially the organizers of the rally, and take responsibility for themselves. On the other hand, it’s an active position, and people were carried to such a condition.
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RESOLUTION
of the protest rally of the "Usinsk" district villagers
June 5, 2014 the village of Ust-Usa
We, the residents of the villages of the Usinsk urban district, have been experiencing the terrible consequences of oil production on our land for over four decades. Our rivers, lakes, swamps are mercilessly polluted. Our traditional habitat is destroyed. We are deprived of the usual resources of nature — the main source of our livelihood. Our constitutional rights to a healthy environment, clean air and water are systematically violated.
Oil companies, primarily LUKOIL-Komi — the main operator for oil production in the country — send formal replies, promises and deceit to our letters and appeals. On our repeated appeals to various authority instances, from the head of the urban district to the country's leadership, we have never received a constructive response, adequate to our requirements. They don’t hear us, they don’t understand us.
So here we are, at a rally in the historic village of Ust-Usa, and we declare after residents of Krasnobor, Schelyayur and other settlements of the Izhma district that we no longer want to passively watch the barbaric destruction of our land and the pollution of rivers. People who are not interested in our future and the future of our children come to our ancestral lands — they are only interested in "black gold" of our bowels, and they are ready to leave and they do leave behind a lifeless space for it.
We want to keep our land, nature and traditional culture for future generations. Therefore, we reject the silent and submissive observation of the destruction of nature — the foundation of our lives.
"LUKOIL" and other oil companies have to change their policy to commit and conceal violations of environmental legislation and to change their economic policies — to pump as much oil as possible at any price. We also demand to change the policy of interaction with the local population — the company must build it on the principles of partnership — with the provision of the maximum number of jobs for local residents, with a significant change in the content of annual agreements with municipalities for the villages, in the interests of the rural population.
We demand from the supervisory authorities of the objective investigation into the placement of the borehole №2 on the North-Ipatsk oil field on the area flooded at high water. Operation of this well will inevitably lead to irreversible contamination of important for the local residents water bodies — the two lakes and river Andryushkino, as well as the Pechora River. We demand an objective environmental review of the project and the dismantling of this borehole.
We demand from the management of the "Usinsk" urban district that fines and payments for damage to the budget of the urban district are completely directed to rehabilitation of the polluted nature and to local people suffered from oil spills — residents of villages of the urban district.
We appeal to the government of the Republic of Komi and demand to listen to our voice. We are surprised that neither the acting head of the republic V. M. Gaizer, nor the deputies of the State Council of the republic "don’t see" catastrophic consequences of oil extraction on our territory for the environment and local residents. We are surprised that none of the republic's leadership still didn’t respond to the continuing for more than two months meetings and rallies of the Komi villagers, outraged by systematic violations of the law by "LUKOIL-Komi" and ignoring the interests of locals, indigenous peoples of the republic.
Derricks and oil wells are moving closer to our hamlets and villages. We demand to conduct public environmental hearings not in Usinsk, but in rural areas.
Rally expresses distrust of the environmental control of oil companies of Environmental Services of Municipal Committee for Nature Protection, the city prosecutor's office and Rosprirodnadzor in the Komi Republic.
The local and republican authorities behave like ostriches, sinking their heads in the sand. Government behaves like a magician on the stage in front of people: saying one thing, shows another thing, and makes the third. No republican or regional press writes about meetings and rallies in the Izhemsky district, except a public newspaper "Veskyd sёrni", "Ecological newsletter" and the online journal "7x7". This means that the government and oil companies are a single unit, and both are equally not interested in living conditions of indigenous people and their opinions. Corruption is a so-called phenomenon when capital and government are spliced.
We declare that the main polluter and violator of environmental laws on our territory — LLC "LUKOIL-Komi" — must go away, if it is not willing to comply with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, its laws, and ignores the interests of the local people!
We also declare that we will not forget about our demands until the September elections, and if nothing changes, we will seek the election boycott, deleting all the candidates for the post of the Head of the Republic of Komi.
Now it is the limit of the silent patience towards lawlessness of oil companies and government!
Maxim Polyakov, «7x7»
