Environmental Governance in the Russian Federation: Firms and Regulator Perception of Environmental NGOs

Against the backdrop of increasing public awareness of global environmental challenges, this paper examines the potential for collaborative environmental governance in the Russian Federation. To do so, we examine regulators’ and firms’ perceptions of, and collaborations with, environmental Non-governmental Organizations (eNGOs) in three Russian regions. Our findings highlight that Russian firms rarely include eNGOs in environmentally-focused activities because they perceive them to be ineffective, invisible, or irrelevant. Russian regulators do engage with eNGOs, but not as equal partners in the form of collaborative governance arrangements; regulators reduce eNGOs to the positions of subordinates and/or assistants.