• DOI:10.1080/0966813022000025862
• Corpus ID: 156340249

Implementing Russia's International Environmental Commitments: Federal Prerogative or Regional Concern?

@article{Hnneland2002ImplementingRI,
  title={Implementing Russia's International Environmental Commitments: Federal Prerogative or Regional Concern?},
  author={Geir H{\o}nneland and Anne-Kristin J{\o}rgensen},
  journal={Europe-Asia Studies},
  year={2002},
  volume={54},
  pages={1223 - 1240}
}

• Geir Hønneland, Anne-Kristin Jørgensen
• Published 1 December 2002
• Political Science
• Europe-Asia Studies

HOW DO THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES GO ABOUT implementing their international environmental obligations? This question implies that implementation is here understood as the political processes taking place at the national, and possibly the sub-national, level after the conclusion of agreements or establishment of regimes at the international level. In the literature on international environmental agreements, processes at the domestic level are receiving increased attention. After an initial main focus on regime formation, the literature has in recent years come to be dominated by studies of regime effectiveness and the implementation, including processes at the domestic level, of provisions laid down by international regimes. By implementation we understand the active steps taken by public authorities or others in order to bring the behaviour of target groups into accordance with the country’s international commitments. Although there has been a certain amount of attention to the implementation of international environmental agreements in so-called transition economies, there has been little systematic study of such implementation processes in Russia. This article analyses implementation processes at the national and sub-national level in Russia, providing empirical evidence from Ž sheries management, nuclear safety and air pollution control issues in the country’s northwestern region, mainly Murmansk and Arkhangelsk oblasti. The relationship between Moscow and the federal subjects has been a major issue of contention in Russian politics since the establishment of the Federation in 1991. Hence the division of responsibility between federal and regional authorities will necessarily be a major concern in a study of the implementation of international environmental obligations in the regions of Russia, as will co-ordination of work between various agencies at both the federal and the regional level. Northwestern Russia is a good case in point for analysis since it in many respects represents a microcosm of the Russian Federation. Most important in this context, it epitomises an ‘exaggerated’ version of Russia as a whole with its abundant natural resources and extremely grave environmental conditions. Methodologically, the investigation builds on numerous interviews with government and industry actors in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Moscow, mainly during the