How ecotourism schemers harm Russia
One of the most memorable episodes of Ilf and Petrov’s cult novel “The Twelve Chairs” is the moment the concessionaires were forced to visit a classic muhosr#nsk called Vasyuki.
The great schemer, having learned that an abnormally large number of chess lovers lived in the musty hole, organized the famous tournament in Vasyuki with the goal of squeezing out ten. The tournament was preceded by a lecture warming up the public, promising to turn the hole into the brilliant capital of New Vasyuki, which in the future was to become the venue for the “Interplanetary Chess Congress”.
The village of Chupa, Loukhsky district of the Republic of Karelia, got into a very similar story, which schemers from the environmental organization WWF-Russia, together with their accomplices, beautifully promised to turn into a center of international ecotourism, and the population and fathers of the village took it and bought their words.
About this case NAO-Info agency reported.
The Karelian branch of WWF-Russia is represented by the Barents Sea branch with a regional center in Murmansk. The department is headed by a certain Oleg Sutkaitis. It doesn't matter that most Russians have never heard of this man. Suffice it to say that Mr. Sutkaitis is widely known in narrow circles of professional defenders of Russian nature.
It all started back in 2008. An attractive banner “WWF supports the development of ecotourism in Chupa” was displayed on the WWF Russia website. Chupa, as you can understand, is almost a complete analogue of Vasyukov - a depressive village in the bearish corner of the Loukhsky district of Karelia. So, according to WWF-Russia, based on the research of ecologist Sutkaitis, thanks to Chupa’s remoteness from all centers of culture and civilization, it is from it that it is possible to organize an international ecotourism center with its own blackjack, yacht club, geological tourism and ice diving due to its proximity to Bely to the sea. Contributions from interested parties are welcome.
As is usual in such matters, local resourceful personnel were needed to promote the project. And they were found in the person of the local ecologist Rybakov, who heads an organization with a long, clumsy and difficult to remember name: Karelian regional public organization for promoting sustainable development and environmental protection “Basin Council of the North Karelian Coast”. Locals, however, call the office more simply: “Pool Council.”
By a lucky coincidence, ecologist Rybakov is the leader of the Chupinsky yachtsmen’s club, which has the status of a public organization.
In addition to the yacht club, an adventure tourism company, Keret-Tour LLC, was also found in Chupa, which has the closest and most partnership relations with the Chupa Marine Yacht Club. Again, it is completely by chance that the management and founders of the adventure company and yacht club bear the surname Rybakov, raising vague suspicions that environmental protection and the tourism business with a wide range of services are a well-established family business. Moreover, it should be noted that the profile of the Rybakov family business completely coincides with the plans of the Karelian branch of WWF-Russia to make the brilliant tourist mecca of New Chupa out of just Chupa.
The mention of a world-renowned wildlife organization in the organization of a new tourist mecca in the Karelian forests worked as a magnet to attract investors. First, local businesses, followed by local authorities, began to invest money in the future New Chupa. To give the matter the necessary scope and importance, local authorities developed and adopted nothing less than a municipal target program “Tourism Development in the Loukh Municipal District for 2011 - 2015” with a planned investment amount of 72 million rubles. The target program received 1330 thousand rubles from municipal funds. The remaining funds were supposed to be raised from extra-budgetary sources.
The cause of developing tourism and adventure in Chupa turned out to be so contagious that not only the local leadership and deputies joined in, but also the Moscow leadership of WWF ecologist Sutkaitis. Since 2008, they have faithfully transferred almost a million rubles a year to the Barents Sea Branch for the implementation of the New Chupa project and the involvement of the local population in ecotourism. Need I say that the lion’s share of grants allocated by WWF was successfully accumulated and used by Mr. Rybakov’s “Bassovet”?
WWF-Russia has appointed its separate White Sea project Lighthouse Foundation as the main financial donor of the mega-projects of the “basin” dealer in Chupa. And suddenly it turned out that the coordinator of the Lighthouse Foundation, Yulia Suprunenko, is at the same time one of the staff members of the CRPO “Basin Council”. However, the scandalous fact and obvious conflict of interest for some reason did not cause concern among local regulatory authorities and anti-corruption fighters.
Somewhere in 2015, the enthusiasm of the author and inspirer of the tourism mega-project Ny Chupa Sutkaitis for his brainchild began to cool down. It gradually began to dawn on the concession participants that over the course of two five-year plans, a lot of money had been poured in, but the project never took off, and there would be no tourist invasion in Chupa. There were activists from local fans of the revival of the village of Chupa, who took to heart the idea of WWF with adventure ecotourism, who tried to encourage Sutkaitis to continue developing the project further, but it was all in vain - the operator, tired of the environment, closed the question of the prospects for transforming Chupa into a tourist paradise.
And in order to more efficiently bury the unpleasant topic, the Barents Sea branch of WWF sent an “independent” conclusion to the head Moscow office about the futility of developing tourism in the Louhi region.
Evil but competent tongues claim that during ten years of promoting the mega-project to transform Chupa, Sutkaitis managed to appreciate the environmental and recreational attractiveness of the Louhi region of Karelia. And he even bought a nice place there, where you can fully appreciate all the advertised advantages of the area, from which the lure of gullible ecotourism lovers began: sun, air and water of the White Sea.
How are things going with the environmentalist yachtsman and family contractor Rybakov? Knowledgeable people say that, unlike Chupa, Rybakov and his yacht club are in perfect order. You could even say covered in chocolate. With money from WWF and the Lighthouse Foundation, the “Baseinovo” yacht club is thriving and smelling, performing at all kinds of regattas. And his yachts even proudly wear the WWF logo on their sails. Having lost funding for the Chupa revival project, Mr. Rybakov turned to another life-giving source of grants - the Russian Geographical Society, of which he is a full member. And despite the scandal surrounding the New Chupa project, the Russian Geographical Society is considered a handshake person with an impeccable reputation.
Sutkaitis also has everything in order with his reputation and handshake. The busy ecologist switched from “raising rabbits” to grant-eating activities. In particular, WWF, with the help of Russian grant-eaters, started a large-scale closure of the Northern Sea Route from the Barents Sea to the Kara Sea through the Kara Gate by expanding the environmental water area around Vaygach Island, which the international environmental community demands to be given the status of a natural monument of world significance. At the moment, Vaygach is a nature reserve of regional importance, but the persecution of imported environmentalists occurs at the level of the governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, while the responsible decision-making bodies remain silent.
In general, international ecologists live interesting lives in Russia. From long-term corruption schemes to creating problems for the industrial development of Arctic territories and obstructing navigation along the Northern Sea Route. The business of the murky organization Belloona, which operated in Russia in the interests of foreign states under an environmental roof, is alive and well. Isn't it time to tighten the wick?
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