Pacific Environment’s Russia staff is about to undertake its yearly exodus to Russia for the much-anticipated annual Sosnovka Coalition meeting. Sosnovka is an annual meeting of all the top environmental activists from Siberia and the Russian Far East, with a few lawyer and policy types from Moscow thrown in for good measure. The conference is always a blur of intense strategy conversations and jovial social time. Many of the Sosnovtsy are old friends who see each other once or twice each year, which means Day One of the conference involves a lot of ‘who got married’, ‘who had kids’, and ‘who got divorced’ conversations. The strategy conversations are simultaneously overarching and specific, covering new and old topics: forestry, protected areas, mining, fisheries, oil and gas development, alternative energy sources, etc.

The Sosnovka Coalition is based on trust, mutual support, and effective communication. Modern-day Russian activists spend a lot of time on the road, in meetings, in court, conducting fieldwork and public outreach, and working multiple jobs. They are skilled in maximizing their time at the annual meeting, and the entire group communicates regularly and strategically via e-mail created to serve the Coalition and its working groups. Based on trust built over time, the Sosnovka Coalition is the backbone of the environmental movement in Siberia and the Russian Far East. All of the great modern campaigns (opposing financing for Sakhalin-II, rerouting the Siberia-Pacific Pipeline, etc.) can all be traced back to Sosnovka conversations. Stay tuned in October for the hottest news and the inside story on what Russia’s top environmentalists will focus on in the coming year!