I have traveled widely in and outside of Russia. I have to say that the period which we are now passing through in our country was experienced by those countries 30-40 years ago. According to surveys of public opinion, in Russia ecology is somewhere between seventh and eleventh priority. It is well-known that the President of the Russian Federation receives a huge number of letters every day. And, in addition, the economic situation in the country is such that there simply are no possibilities for tackling these problems.
People begin to think about ecology when their quality of life is high.
When life itself is tenuous, it is simply not natural to think about improving its quality. Muscovites are lucky, although even in Moscow the ecological situation is extremely tense. But in the provinces it is much worse. In Cherepovets, for example, the average age of residents is 32 years old. But even there people do not write to Yeltsin, do not protest against these living conditions.