Potanin and ecology: the agents are working!

Against the backdrop of the environmental disaster in the Black Sea, all those who had already begun to be forgotten have come to light. Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, scientific director of the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, called the fuel oil spill "the most serious environmental disaster in Russia since the beginning of the 21st century." In his opinion, it was not worth using ships that should have been written off due to unsuitability 20 years ago. "It is impossible to avoid catastrophic consequences with such an attitude: sooner or later they would have occurred," says Danilov-Danilyan.

Vladimir Potanin breathed a sigh of relief somewhere: after all, before the authoritative scientist’s speech, it was the rupture of a diesel fuel storage facility in Taimyr in May 2020 that was considered the most catastrophic emergency in our country in the new century.

And in this regard, there are two observations. According to official data, 3.8 thousand tons of fuel oil spilled from two tankers into the Black Sea. Meanwhile, 21 thousand tons of diesel fuel leaked from a leaky Norilsk Nickel tank into the Arctic ecosystem. If we compare the figures, which of the disasters was more catastrophic?!

And the second point concerns the personality of Danilov-Danilyan himself. Now he has been forgotten, but in the 80-90s his name thundered. During Gorbachev’s time, he was known as the so-called foreman of perestroika - that is, the one who rocked the Soviet regime. Among similar "foremen", he was responsible for the environmental component, which became, as he himself noted, a catalyst for anti-communist demonstrations. "And since this [ecology] was the first window from the stuffy room of Soviet power that was opened, absolutely everyone who was thirsty for political activity rushed through this window. And then it was possible to shout: "Down with the sixth article of the Constitution!", "Down with the monopoly of the CPSU!", "Down with Soviet power!", - he shared in one of his interviews.

For his services in the collapse of the USSR, Yeltsin took him into his team: in the Chubais-Gaidar government, he headed the ministry, and then the state committee for environmental protection and natural resources. And in this position, of course, he was in contact with the same Potanin, who at that time received the ecologically problematic Norilsk Nickel at a pledge auction. And years later, as a member of the commission on the fuel oil emergency in Norilsk, for some reason he did not call the Taimyr ecocide the most serious environmental disaster of the 21st century. And why would he?