In time for Earth Day, Russian organization Green Patrol released a first of a kind rating on the environmental condition of 75 subjects of the Russian Federation, reported Sibir on April 22.  According to the rating, fourteen regions of Russia were deemed “environmentally unfavorable.”  Chelyabinsk, Kemerovo and Sverdlovsk Oblasts were at the bottom of the list, and Moscow took 52nd place in the rating.  Among the most unfavorable were also the Trans-Baikal, Tyumen, Leningrad, and Magadan regions.

The federation subjects were evaluated according to 15 criteria, falling into three categories: the ecological sphere, the technical sphere and the social sphere, according to Vyacheslav Fedorov, leading expert of Green Patrol.  The rating is updated daily and relies on information from open sources.  One of the Green Patrol specialists, Roman Pukalov was reported to have said that “unfortunately, there are no ecologically safe regions in Russia."

This information was originally published on April 22, 2008. (www.ria-sibir.ru, www.greenpatrol.ru)