ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the complex and dynamic nature of Russia’s contemporary environmental situation. It highlights the marked regional variation in the character and extent of environmental issues across the expanse of the Russian Federation. While an exploration of the specificities of Russia’s development path is a necessary task in order to understand more fully contemporary environmental pressures, there is also much to gain from placing Russia’s experience in a broader analytical framework. In common with other post-socialist countries, the structural changes taking place within Russia’s economy have encouraged a range of additional urban-based environmental pressures related to the logic of market-type economies. The traditional focus on air and water quality in urban regions ensures that environmental trends across vast expanses of Russia are little understood. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
