ABSTRACT
After perestroika and the opening of the borders of the former Soviet Union, Russia experienced a rapid influx of Western culture. In little over a decade, an array of multinational companies have built infrastructure to facilitate their entrance into the Russian economy. The first McDonalds came to Russia as early as 1990. Coca-Cola now has a massive warehouse just outside St. Petersburg, Ikea has one near Moscow, and American and European clothing corporations operate stores throughout both cities. The environmental movement of the West, specifically large transnational environmental organizations, entered Russia and established active subsidiaries as quickly as commercial interests did. They brought along Western money, Western values and Western ideas of nature protection, officially entered Russian political and economic spheres. Greenpeace came in 1992 and established a central office in Moscow, followed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 1994. Since then, these and other large environmental NGOs have tried to influence government policy, industry and the environmental awareness of Russian citizens. In so doing, these groups have contributed to the inflow of Western culture. The expansion of Western environmentalism into Russia since the early 1990s has brought with it ideas and concepts of nature conservation and techniques of natural-resource exploitation developed by science, industry and civil society of the USA, Canada and European countries.
