Activist group Pussy Riot share an open letter to the Kremlin alongside new single BLACK SNOW addressing pollution and waste in northern Russia.
Russian activist group Pussy Riot have unveiled a new single BLACK SNOW and have shared an open letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin “and his cronies”. The single, titled BLACK SNOW features Mara 37, and alongside the open letter, campaigns against pollution by Russian corporations and the damaging effect hazardous chemicals, and other polluting materials are having on Russian communities.
The lyrics to BLACK SNOW make clear its political intent: “I see the shape of god in acid smoke / he’s choked on the smog but winked at me a little / the acid rain hasn’t fucking stopped since last year / my eyes are being corroded.”
An open letter directed to Putin and the Kremlin from Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova accompanies the track. The letter, addressed to “Putin and his cronies, including Potanin, Prokhorov, Deripaska, and Abramovich,” outlines distressing details on the “apocalyptic” state of the Russian north and the impact industrial plants and corporations are having on local towns. The letter describes “rivers of blood, black snow, toxic waste, and acid rain”.and details the harm this form of environmental damage has had on communities in the region.
“You fill the Russian North with unprocessed garbage (see Shiyes and 10 million tons of Moscow waste). You criminalise ecological activists (see 5 new cases against Alexandra Koroleva, the co-chair of Ecodefense!). Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Kuzbass are forced to seek environmental asylum in Canada to escape intolerable living conditions, high rates of oncological illness, black snow, poisoned water, and the indifference of local government officials. People in Kuzbass ask: “How can you be a patriot of something or someone who won’t even notice how we live? How we breathe? What we drink?” Listen, this is just completely unacceptable.”
The letter goes on to list hazardous materials – including iron, nickel, petroleum products, sulfur dioxide, and phenols – that corporations such as Nornickel, have been releasing into the air and rivers of industrial towns like Norilsk in northern Russia. Tolokonnikova claims that 2 million tones of sulfur dioxide are emitted into the air by Nornickel every year, which is more than the sulfur dioxide emission of all Western European countries. “By some accounts,” Tolokonnikova states, “the amount of toxic waste in Norilsk exceeds even Chernobyl.”
Tolokonnikova closes the letter by addressing the public in an appeal for support: “Corporations, especially those that use natural resources, cannot exist with public control. Each of us should be able to see and influence what is happening in these corporations. The decisions made by corporations like Nornickel don’t just affect Potanin, Abramovich, Deripaska, or Putin – they affect me, you, some guy, and the kids and grandkids of that guy. Toxic emissions don’t dissolve – they accumulate and cause mutations in humans and animals alike, and they will lead to irreversible environmental catastrophe.”
Pussy Riot will also be performing in Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday 11 July to protest a recently passed law limiting access to abortion in the state, and similar bills across the U.S, and support both Planned Parenthood and the Yellowhammer Trust. Watch the video flyer for the event here.
Read Pussy Riot’s open letter in full on the group’s website and revisit our interview with Pussy Riot from last summer here.
