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Russia Is Trying to Push River Borders
April 17th, 2025
Via Foreign Policy, a look at how Russia is employing river-related games to impact its neighbors: Almost a year ago, Russian border guards removed half the buoys that had been placed to mark the border between Russia and Estonia in the Narva River. Estonia’s government has repeatedly (and politely) reminded Russia to return the buoys, […]
Read more »Water At War: Kakhovka Dam In Ukraine
March 15th, 2025
Via Phys.org, commentary on the long-term environmental consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine: Water is misused as a weapon when infrastructure and water resources are deliberately destroyed in armed conflicts. Water resources and infrastructure are also affected by the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine: In June 2023, the Kakhovka Dam, which […]
Read more »The Shrinking Caspian Sea: An Environmental and Geopolitical Emergency
January 22nd, 2025
Via The Diplomat, an article on allowing the Caspian Sea to succumb to industrial exploitation and climate-induced desiccation would be an irreversible tragedy: Last month, an 18th-century 28-meter wooden shipwreck was discovered off the Mazandaran coast of the Caspian Sea in southern Iran. Operating under Russian influence, the ship likely comprised part of a merchant fleet carrying botanical […]
Read more »Climate Change—and Complacency—Is Drying Up the Caspian Sea
January 11th, 2025
Via World Politics Review, a look at how climate change – and complacency – is drying up the Caspian Sea: The Caspian Sea is a geographical marvel and a critical resource for the five countries—Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan—that border it. But the future of the world’s largest enclosed inland body of water is […]
Read more »Water Woes: The Caspian Sea Is Shrinking Rapidly
November 27th, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at the implications of the Caspian Sea’s decline for Russia: FOR MANY living on Kazakhstan’s coast, it was obvious long ago. The Caspian Sea is drying up. The world’s largest inland body of water has dropped by two metres since the mid-1990s, shrinking by 15,000 square km, an area bigger than […]
Read more »Caspian Sea: At Risk of Desertification
August 21st, 2024
Via Central Asian Bureau for Analytical Reporting, a report on the Caspian Sea: In November-December 2023, Beda organized the research group ?????? / SUSPENDED MATTER focused on exploring the environmental policies of the Soviet Union and their long-term consequences in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the South Caucasus. One notable outcome of the group’s work […]
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