In this episode, Olya and Jeff sit down with Evgeniya Chirikova, a Russian environmental activist who got her start organizing opposition to a planned highway project that would destroy swathes of the federally-protected Khimki forest near Moscow. Our discussion of her efforts to save Khimki forest spills into a broader one about grassroots activism in Russia, its lessons, and its prospects.

You can read more about Evgeniya’s career, work and activism, here: https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/evgenia-chirikova/

Check out Evgeniya’s website and project, Activatica, here: http://activatica.org/. Activatica is a digital communication platform that aims to build a network of activists in Russia around the word.

As always, keep sending us mailbag questions! If you would like to have your question answered on the podcast, send it to us! Email [email protected] and put “Russian Roulette” in the subject line. And, if you have one, include your Twitter handle, so we can notify you publicly when we answer your question (or, if you don’t want us to, tell us that). We look forward to hearing from you.