Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Dmitry Patrushev: Environmental issues have no boundaries, no age, no political views.
Dmitry Patrushev answered questions about environmental protection. What has been achieved this year? What still needs to be done? He spoke about this and much more in an exclusive interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Photo: Press service of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev
I. Ostanin: In 2025, the implementation of new national projects began. One of the areas is the environmental situation related to water bodies. I cannot help but touch on the topic related to the great Russian river Volga. This topic attracts a lot of attention, Komsomolskaya Pravda conducted a large investigation on this topic: previously built treatment facilities are working at only 5%… Dmitry Nikolaevich, what do you think about ways to solve the problem? How to keep the Volga clean?
D. Patrushev: Environmental improvement of the Volga over the past six years has involved more than just the construction of treatment facilities. In addition, landfills have been eliminated and measures have been taken to increase the river’s capacity. This allows people to be provided with water during dry periods, including for irrigation.
Regarding the treatment facilities, I will say that problems were indeed identified in this block of activities. At the finish line of the previous national project, when I was given this direction under my supervision, it became clear that a number of facilities were not completed.
Moreover, not the most positive results were obtained as a result of inspections of the quality of wastewater treatment at already commissioned facilities.
Throughout the past year, we have been systematically changing our approach to work. A headquarters was set up at the government site, where each facility was literally analyzed “under a magnifying glass.” Based on the results, a schedule was created for completing construction and reaching standard cleaning indicators. Monitoring of plan execution is carried out through digital tools. Therefore, any deviations are visible to both us and regional leaders. There were many other transformations. As a result, the dynamics of construction have increased significantly.
For the future, within the framework of the new national project “Ecological Well-Being”, we have completely restructured the approach to project implementation. For example, now an object cannot be considered commissioned until Rosprirodnadzor confirms the required quality of wastewater treatment.
I am convinced that responsibility for the implementation of projects should be increased, including at the local level. After all, it is there that one can see better what has been built and how it affects the environmental situation. The involvement of subjects should be not only organizational, but also financial. We have also taken this into account in the new national project.
Let me emphasize that all objects will be completed and brought up to standard indicators!
I. Ostanin: You said that the approaches changed when working within the framework of the new national project, but the geography of the work has also significantly expanded. As far as I know, now it is planned to include other reservoirs and rivers in addition to the Volga and Baikal.
D. Patrushev: Indeed, through the federal project “Water of Russia” the improvement, one way or another, will affect almost all major waterways of our country. This will not only be new treatment facilities, but also the cleaning of more than 1000 kilometers of rivers, which will create comfortable conditions for millions of people living near water bodies. In addition, measures are planned to improve the condition of lakes and reservoirs.
We pay special attention to events within the boundaries of cultural heritage sites, specially protected natural areas, historical tourist centers. As an example, I will cite the restoration of the rivers and lakes of the Gatchina Park in the Leningrad Region.
I would like to note that we will continue to monitor all work on improving the health of water bodies at the government level.
By the way, this year funds have already been allocated for the Krasnogorsk Irtysh hydroelectric complex in the Omsk region and the Elizavetinsky reservoir hydroelectric complex, the most important source of drinking water for residents of the Lugansk People’s Republic.
I. Ostanin: Let’s continue by talking about the ecology of Lake Baikal. Many spears have been broken around this topic. How is it planned to build the development of the Baikal region?
D. Patrushev: We must certainly do everything to preserve Baikal, our unique natural site.
However, the territory needs to be developed, providing the local population with quality living conditions. Developing a policy on how to regulate this is a long-standing issue. The Ministry of Natural Resources is developing a corresponding bill.
It was adopted in the first reading last year. However, some of its provisions required adjustments. Now the government’s amendments are ready. I will not make premature statements, but I expect a balanced decision to be made that will take into account the possibility of preserving the incredible nature of Baikal and economically developing the territories. I hope that the reasonable balance found will become a prerequisite for the sustainable development of these territories for many years.
I. Ostanin: Development of ecotourism is another important part of the national project “Ecological Well-being”. The holiday season has arrived. Tell us how the authorities are going to develop ecotourism? What routes, directions, maybe even new resorts will appear?
Photo: Press service of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev
D. Patrushev: Domestic tourism is currently experiencing a rapid rise. In 2024, Russia broke its own record for the number of domestic tourist trips, exceeding 90 million. But the President has ordered that this figure reach 140 million by 2030.
I have no doubt that our national parks can become an excellent point of attraction for tourists. Over the past six years, the tourist flow to them has grown from 6 to 17 million people. As part of the national project “Ecological Well-Being”, we continue to create conditions for popularizing this type of recreation for people.
To this end, among other things, we will remove unreasonable restrictions that hinder the development of tourism infrastructure in specially protected natural areas.
By the way, the Ministry of Natural Resources is also developing cruise tourism. For example, today those who wish can visit national parks in the Far East and see natural attractions that are inaccessible to “land” tours in Khabarovsk, Primorsky and Kamchatka Krais, Magadan and Sakhalin Oblasts, as well as Chukotka.
National parks and reserves also develop excursion programs – for example, for weekend routes, they equip walking trails, open visitor centers, and arrange the necessary infrastructure. For example, Sochi National Park offers tourists updated eco-trails this season. We aim to make national parks interesting and comfortable in terms of improvement.
I. Ostanin: Preservation and increase of our pride, Russian forests, is one of the tasks of the national project “Ecological Well-being”. What is being done to restore forests?
D. Patrushev: Russia is home to a fifth of the world’s forest reserves. Understanding this, we take on increased obligations to preserve and increase them. Over the past 6 years, the area of new plantings has reached almost 8 million hectares.
And, contrary to the global trend, more forests appear in our country than disappear. We have maintained this dynamic for several years in a row.
People, our caring citizens, make a significant contribution to forest restoration. This deserves special gratitude. The country annually holds the “Garden of Memory” and “Save the Forest” campaigns. Over the years, more than 350 million trees have been planted, and public figures, politicians, and guests from foreign countries have taken part.
However, wildfires remain a serious challenge for many countries — and for us too. The areas annually engulfed in flames, despite all preventive measures, are still quite significant. The government, for its part, is doing a lot of work to reduce them. In 2025, regions have been allocated almost 20 billion rubles. Including more than 5 billion additionally allocated to the most “burning” subjects — Yakutia, Transbaikalia and Krasnoyarsk Krai. The regions, for their part, are also increasing funding.
And, of course, forest conservation requires full control over the movement of timber. In 2020, the President set the task of creating a system that would make the process completely transparent. Much has already been done for this. Strengthening supervision and introducing digital technologies in the industry have made it possible to reduce the number of violations by 2.5 times in 5 years. We can now track the movement of timber from harvesting to final products and export. But the improvement of control mechanisms in this area continues.
From January 1, 2025, data on the forestry complex must be entered into the new state information system (FGIS Forestry Complex). And from this year, all timber trucks must be equipped with the GLONASS system.
This will allow us to more effectively suppress “gray schemes”, because in real time we can see every logging site and all special equipment. Monitoring of the execution of the President’s order will be constant.
I. Ostanin: The so-called “garbage reform” is being implemented in the country. At what point are we? And what will be done to achieve the indicators outlined by the President?
D. Patrushev: On the instructions of the President, we are developing a closed-loop economy. What does this mean? Firstly, by 2030, waste sorting should be 100%, secondly, we need to reduce the volume of landfill disposal by 50%, and thirdly, which is very important, a quarter of the waste should be recycled. Currently, approximately 55% of waste is sorted, and only 14% is recycled.
Over the past six years, almost 300 facilities for sorting, recycling and placing solid municipal waste have appeared in the country. In order to achieve the required indicators, it is planned to build another 400 facilities by 2030. So that we can monitor how the subjects cope with this task at the federal level, a special headquarters is working on the government platform. And we will continue to work in this format.
But we must understand that waste management reform is not only about large enterprises. It starts in our yards and will always be in the public eye. Everything matters here: how involved local authorities are, whether the containers are clean, whether there are enough garbage trucks in the region, how financially stable the regional operators are, whether everything is taken into account in the regulatory framework. We are consistently working on all these areas in dialogue with regional leaders, senators and deputies.
I. Ostanin: Dmitry Nikolaevich, as is known, the activities of enterprises in the agro-industrial complex can also affect the environment. How can we find a balance between the development of our agriculture and a caring attitude towards nature?
Photo: Press service of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev
D. Patrushev: Companies in the agro-industrial complex are no different from other industries in this regard. In particular, those that have the most significant impact on the environment must obtain comprehensive environmental permits. These are documents that indicate the compliance of production with certain environmental requirements and standards or confirm the existence of modernization plans.
In general, agriculture is now one of the most advanced areas of the Russian economy. But at the same time, we strive for the industry to develop in harmony with nature and “be friends” with it. Much is being done for this in modern production facilities.
Another example: since 2023, work has been underway to improve the efficiency of involving livestock by-products in production, including for the restoration of agricultural land fertility.
I. Ostanin: Let’s move from ecology to issues of ensuring our food security. The production of agricultural products, in general, is growing; in recent years we have set records for the harvest of grain, rice, fruit and berry crops, etc. What do you think helped us not only maintain production volumes under sanctions, but also increase them?
D. Patrushev: Today the industry can rightfully be proud of its status as a guarantor of our food security. The state has created all the conditions for this.
The turning point in many ways was 2014, when the food embargo was introduced. Our president’s decision in the sphere of geopolitics created completely new opportunities for the economy. I have already spoken about this: Crimea is now ours, and – in relation to the agricultural industry – the food shelf. At the start, there were many concerns: skeptics predicted that we could be left without food.
But the move towards domestic production allowed the agro-industrial complex to become the driver of the economy. Entire areas made a sharp leap. For example, we essentially rebuilt greenhouse vegetable growing. New super-intensive gardens were planted, which gave us their own fruits. We now have more than 9 thousand types of Russian-made cheese, and its production volumes have doubled.
So the fears were not justified.
It must be said that our farmers are a colossal growth point. The state, for its part, has provided them with the necessary support.
In general, there are now tools for all categories of agricultural business – for large players and for the smallest farms. Last year, the government allocated 682 billion rubles to the agro-industrial and fisheries complexes!
Today we are on the path to achieving technological sovereignty. A new national project has been created for this purpose (“Technological Support for Food Security”). It covers those areas of the agro-industrial complex and related industries where deficit positions still remain. This concerns selection and genetics, agricultural machinery and equipment. It is necessary to increase the share of domestic veterinary drugs and vaccines on the market, and develop biotechnology.
And, of course, there are people behind any success. Therefore, we strive to ensure that the training of personnel keeps pace with the development of the high-tech and advanced industry that our agricultural industry is. At the same time, it is necessary to start educating effective farmers as early as possible, for which purpose agro-technological classes are created. In addition to general education subjects, children learn about farm animal breeding technologies, learn how to operate unmanned aerial vehicles and work with modern agricultural machinery. Children will be able to get their first profession in agriculture already at school. There should be 18 thousand such classes by 2030. We are waiting for young and motivated specialists.
I. Ostanin: An alarming trend that we are seeing is that last year the prices of dairy products were rising, for example, butter. Now everyone is talking about potato prices. Why do we see sharp price increases for certain products from time to time? And what can be done to avoid this?
D. Patrushev: It is important to understand several points here. The food market is sensitive to fluctuations in supply and demand. Last year, the demand for dairy products grew significantly. And not only from buyers, but also from the food industry.
Our confectionery and cheese industries have increased their output. But this requires a large amount of dairy raw materials.
And although farmers are steadily increasing the production of raw milk, at the moment the current volumes were insufficient. This caused a temporary imbalance in the market.
The situation was stabilized, including due to the opening of supplies from friendly countries. A similar mechanism is used for some vegetables of the “borscht set”, potatoes and apples. But here too there is a fork. After all, the price directly depends on the harvest, especially if we are talking about products with a limited shelf life.
For a certain period of time, potatoes have been rising in price. However, if you look at the statistics, you will see that the prices were not much different from the cost of a couple of years ago. The growth is due to the fact that in 2023 we received a record potato harvest – 8.6 million tons. Inevitably, prices for it fell. And the 2024 harvest is comparable to what was two years before. The cost is “recouping” its fall, because farmers cannot work at a loss. Now the new harvest is already beginning. At the same time, the sowing area for potatoes has increased this year. And at the moment, we see that the growth in prices for it has stopped.
Therefore, we apply regulatory measures selectively and carefully. The main task is to systematically increase our own production, which the Russian agro-industrial complex copes with quite successfully.
I. Ostanin: Dmitry Nikolaevich, it has been a year since you took the position of Deputy Prime Minister. What conclusions have you drawn for yourself and what would you call the most difficult thing about working in this position?
D. Patrushev: One of the important conclusions is that environmental issues have no borders, no age, no political views. This is not just my opinion. The Nevsky International Ecological Congress was recently held, which brought together more than 70 countries, as well as representatives of specialized international organizations.
We talked about the harmony of man and nature. All participants agreed that with such rapid economic development as today, man’s responsibility to the surrounding world is constantly increasing. The issue of ensuring a balance between the economy and ecology is very relevant. And this is what I am now constantly working with.
Russia is fully aware of its responsibility to the world for preserving natural resources. Therefore, we take on increased obligations in relation to the environment. And we will maintain this vector.
As for the difficulties, I think it is not timely to talk about them. Our country is solving problems of historical scale today. Everyone in their place must do everything and even more to meet this level.
Basically, overcoming obstacles is a motivator that allows you to achieve more.
Source –newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.
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