Russian activist Yevgeniya Chirikova visits Tartu

On Wednesday, May 18, Russian environmental activist Yevgeniya Chirikova will give a talk on “Problems of civil society and grassroots activism in Russia” at the University of Tartu. The discussion will focus on the development of political activism in Russia under the tightening grip of the Putin regime. The meeting will be held in Russian (no translation provided) on May 18 at 14.15 at Lossi 36-205 (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tartu).

Yevgeniya Chirikova (1976) is a Russian environmental activist currently based in Tallinn, known for opposing the building of a motorway through Khimki forest near Moscow.  She has also played a prominent role in the 2011–2012 Russian protests following disputed parliamentary elections in Russia, and has also been credited with “stimulating nationwide interest in political reform” (The Telegraph, 2012). The most recent project of Yevgeniya and her team is the online portal activatica.org – a support platform for environmental and social grassroots groups. In 2012, she received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize and was named as one of Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy in 2012.

The lecture is organized jointly by the Centre for EU-Russia Studies, University of Tartu, and the Open Estonia Foundation, as part of the “Voices of Russia” discussion series.

For more information, please contact Piret Ehin, Director of Centre for EU-Russia Studies, piret.ehin@ut.ee, phone 737 5938.