Save Baikal
The authorities want to create an all-season resort on Lake Baikal, significantly increasing the number of tourists. The trouble is that the area around the great lake is not ready for this – the communal infrastructure of coastal settlements remains in a deplorable state.
The correspondent of “Our Version” was personally convinced that an environmental disaster is brewing on the shores of Lake Baikal. In previous issues we talked about the situation on the island OlkhonV Listvyansk and in the bay Kultuk. What is happening was probably a consequence of the collapse of the target program “Protection of Lake Baikal and socio-economic development of the Baikal natural territory for 2012-2020” and the federal project “Preservation of Lake Baikal” (2019–2024).
Everything will be built up
Last year, information appeared that the federal project “Preservation of Lake Baikal” would be extended until 2025. At the same time, it was not about including a large number of new objects in the project; rather, it was intended to complete the ones that had been started. These plans became known only from a speech in the State Duma by the then deputy chairman of the government Victoria Abramenko – they have not yet been published in official documents open to public access. According to her, from 2023 to 2025 it was planned to spend 22 billion rubles on the project. Abramchenko named the clearing of over-sludge water at the site of the closed Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill as one of the main objects of government investment. However, now the reservoir increasingly appears in the context of another project – “Five Seas and Lake Baikal” (it is being implemented within the framework of the national project “Tourism and Hospitality Industry”). The point of the project is to create a year-round federal-level resort on the lake, covering locations in Buryatia and the Irkutsk region. As calculated in Irkutsk, for this the region will need 25 billion rubles of budget injections and another 54 billion of private investments.
The “Magic Baikal” project from the Irkutsk region includes two locations – the village of Taltsy and the city of Baikalsk. Taltsy is located on the banks of the Angara on the road from Irkutsk to Listvyanka. And although Baikalsk is located on the eastern shore of the lake, the main projects there concern the development of the Sobolinaya Mountain ski resort.
At the same time, a youth tourism center EKO.TSEKH has already opened in Baikalsk – it was located on the territory of the closed Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill. Campus guests should be environmental activists from all over Russia. According to the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, a stationary canteen and 10 mobile buildings for 200 people are being built on the territory of EKO.TSEKH. Tents have also been set up to accommodate environmental activists. In total, it is planned to accommodate up to 3 thousand people here. Last year there was already a rally organized by Rosmolodezh “Your business. Entrepreneurship Factory. There, students proposed environmental projects for large companies. Whether this resulted in any real steps or whether everything was limited to the development of budgets is not yet clear.
As for Taltsy, it is planned to build a new resort “Baikalskaya Sloboda” with 3.5 thousand rooms near the village. A yacht marina, water parks, ski and bike trails, eco-trails, etc. should appear here. The estimated volume of private investment is 32 billion rubles. The project will take nine years to complete, with phased commissioning starting in 2027. For all these undertakings, the region is now trying to get additional money from the capital for the reconstruction of roads. As you can understand, the nature of Baikal will not benefit from all this.
Five star holiday
In Buryatia, five locations were allocated for the development of resorts. Bychya Gora, where the ski resort will be built, is located 30 kilometers from the lake, while the rest should appear right on the shore of Lake Baikal. Thus, it is planned to build a yacht club and a resort and tourist complex in the village of Turka. The project is called Green Flow Yacht Resort and is being implemented by Putnik Siberia LLC. The company estimates its expenses at 1.3 billion rubles and has already announced the start of construction work. The company was founded in 2008, but the current owner Konstantin Serebrennikov I bought it two years ago. At the same time, judging by the financial reports, the company was not active in 2019–2021.
Another legal entity appears in the project – Green Flow Baikal LLC. Almost 49% of it belongs to the state corporation “Tourism.RF” (it turns out that the investments will be government-owned?). The rest belongs to Anterra LLC. Its founder and general director is Alexander Tertychnycontrolling the Green Flow hotel chain in different cities of Russia. It is known that in 2015, Mr. Tertychny, through an offshore company, sold 10% of the shares of the railway transportation operator NeftTransService, of which he was the general director. Afterwards, NeftTransService sued him, trying to recover damages in the amount of 204 million rubles.
Construction of the 5-star Cosmos Hotel Baikal has begun in Bezymyannaya Bay. “The concept of the project is to create a premium-class suburban multifunctional complex,” says the website of the special economic zone (SEZ) Baikal Harbor. It is planned to build 35 “VIP houses with a lounge area.” Bezymyannaya, located on a sandy area with a long beach on the most beautiful shore of Lake Baikal, is positioned as a site for locating high-price properties. Let us clarify that Bezymyannaya Bay is located on the Buryat shore of Lake Baikal opposite the northern tip of Olkhon Island. On a yacht, all the beauties of the island are just a stone’s throw away. The billionaire’s AFK Sistema holding is behind the project worth 11 billion rubles Vladimir Evtushenkov. At the same time, the state budget will allocate 147 million for infrastructure. The investor will also receive tax benefits as a SEZ resident.
Information about investors in two more locations – Goryachinsk and Peski – has not yet been published. However, taking into account the five-star format of these projects, it is difficult to say that they will make Baikal more accessible to Russians. We probably don’t even have to ask about whether the construction will affect the protected nature.
By the way
In 2020, the Federal Ecological Operator (FEO), a subsidiary of Rosatom, was appointed as the next, fourth, contractor for the liquidation of the sludge reservoir. The media then cited the estimated cost of the contract as 8 billion rubles.
The two previous contractors did not begin work at the site at all, since the technologies they proposed for converting hazardous waste into a monolith or into soil did not pass the state environmental assessment. The contract was never concluded with the third contractor, the Gazenergostroy – Environmental Technologies company. When identifying FEO as a contractor, the deadline for completing the work was January 31, 2024. However, by the end of this year the company promises only to install equipment on the site that will participate in sludge reclamation.
Another ulcer near Lake Baikal is the territory of the former Dzhida tungsten-molybdenum plant. After the plant was shut down in 1997, the negative impact of its waste on the environment not only did not decrease, but increased significantly, the Buryat press claims. Contaminated water from the mines ends up in rivers, causing their waters to turn rusty-orange, and near the city of Zakamensk there are rubble of the sand fraction saturated with heavy metals, which is why city residents have been complaining for many years about the increase in the number of cancer cases. Attempts to reclaim these sands have so far only resulted in their spreading throughout the surrounding area. From Zakamensk to Baikal is about 150 kilometers, and the Dzhida River flowing there flows into the Selenga, the largest tributary of Baikal.
