Tens of thousands of kilometers of rivers are being destroyed in Russia for the sake of DIRTY GOLD.

The scale of wildlife destruction is simply terrifying. Many people have no idea what is happening! It is impossible to grasp from the cities, impossible to perceive at its real magnitude. Yet it is happening. Right now! Wild nature is already on the brink.

We have fought against mass deforestation, against the destruction of reserves and the extermination of animals. But there are other catastrophes whose scale is staggering. Today I want to tell you how, in our native Siberia and the Far East, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS OF RIVERS are being destroyed by blatantly criminal methods.

Our comrades from the Amur Region contacted me, writing that they no longer have the strength to fight for their homeland. Let me simply publish their letter:

“Dear Pavel Alekseevich!

Hello! We are writing to you on behalf of the concerned residents of the Amur Region. We are turning to you because we no longer know whom else we can approach. We have no strength left to fight alone—our rivers, our lands, our region are suffocating from gold mining.

First, in 2021, the companies polluted more than 5,000 kilometers of rivers!!! All the fish in the rivers died, the bears had nothing to eat and came into our villages. We thought the companies would be punished for this, but the following year they polluted almost another 7,000 kilometers of rivers and made everything even worse! And now it is all happening again—we no longer know whom to turn to.

Pavel, we know you have many other concerns, but on behalf of the residents of the Amur Region we beg you to help us!!!! Tell people about this catastrophe; perhaps the authorities in Moscow will hear us. This must not continue—nature is dying right before our eyes!

Thank you very much and with great respect for your work!! Residents of the Amur Region!”

Such is the misfortune of our comrades.

I conducted my own investigation into the scale of the catastrophe! I will try to be as brief as possible, but I ask everyone to read to the end—only dry, verified data so that you understand the real disaster.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

In a completely extensive mode, large companies, starting around 2020, rushed to mine gold. As a rule, they obtain a license for prospecting deposits, whereas in reality they simply extract gold. Thus they manage to evade environmental assessments and restrictions. Moreover, having studied a huge number of laws, I have a strong feeling that despite formal prohibitions of “oh no, you can’t,” they are actually given the green light at the very highest level.

Logically speaking, this is probably not even surprising. After all, we are talking about gold.

Large‑scale deposit development is underway in Siberia and the Far East, in extremely remote corners of the wilderness. Very convenient for business—no public oversight: they simply go into the backcountry and start mining their dirty gold.

You need to understand that river gold mining is not the “little washing rigs” of the old prospectors during the gold rush. Modern mining is industrial monsters—entire technical lines moved directly into riverbeds.

I will not describe the gold‑mining methods so as not to overload the material. They use various devices, including chains of metal buckets that simply tear up the riverbed. It all looks horrifying, especially against the backdrop of pristine wilderness. There are many industrial contraptions!

But let’s discuss the consequences for nature and the real scale of the catastrophe!

WHAT POLLUTES THE RIVERS?

The most dangerous thing is that most artels still use MERCURY for amalgamation (gold extraction). Its traces are often found downstream of the placers, although officially mercury has supposedly long been abandoned! Usually about 1.3 kg of mercury are released into ecosystems per kilogram of gold. That is equivalent to 2,000 broken thermometers. One liter jar of mercury can kill an entire mountain valley! Once in rivers it can contaminate up to 56 km of water.

On top of this, industrial volumes of suspended particles such as clay, sand, and silty sediments enter the rivers. The water becomes turbid and dirty; this phenomenon is called “muddy streams.” And also a whole deadly cocktail of toxic substances: heavy metals, petroleum products, explosives, and cyanides. Together with the eroded rocks, other substances enter the water such as iron, manganese, copper, lead, zinc, and so on! For example, iron and manganese color the water a rusty shade, copper—a blue one.

All this is dumped directly into the water to flow downstream, killing life throughout the water area. River water literally becomes poisonous, and all substances begin to accumulate in living organisms. Some will die now, others later.

In fact, it is simply insane and frightening: right now in our country, without regard for the country’s future, for the sake of momentary profit, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS OF RIVERS ARE BEING DESTROYED.

WHAT IS THE SCALE?

I studied satellite monitoring data from international organizations; scientists analyze the real scale of our rivers’ destruction due to gold mining. This can be done by the muddy plumes trailing from the placers (downstream).

Instead of a thousand words, let me give just the dry monitoring facts for the period from 2020 to 2024 (the current 2025 is still pending).

Where I put a dash, it means the data are incomplete or I could not verify them. Everything else corresponds to satellite monitoring! So it turns out that in 2020 they were actively “developing” some rivers and the pollution length was still up to 10 thousand km. Then the artels moved on to the next rivers, expanding the geography of industry to wider territories, and last year they broke the “record” by polluting more than 13,500 km of rivers ONLY IN JUNE. 

These estimates are the most modest; the real catastrophe is much greater! That is, if they polluted more than 13 thousand km of rivers in June, how many in reality for the entire calendar year?

For 2023, for example, only the Far East is indicated, so the data are also incomplete. Accordingly, you can vividly imagine what we still do not know about the scale of nature’s destruction. What are the dimensions of the ongoing ecocide?

The current “industrial gold rush” has struck Siberia and the Far East. The absolute leader in pollution is the Amur Region, from where the local residents wrote to me: the Amur Region accounts for up to 45% of all pollution cases in 2021.

The protected Trans‑Baikal, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kemerovo Region, Republic of Tyva, Khabarovsk Territory, Primorsky Territory, and the Jewish Autonomous Region are also under attack.

In reality, the geography of our rivers’ destruction already covers most of Eastern Russia, from Altai and Kuzbass to Kamchatka. Precisely where the greatest water arteries of our country and the entire world are located, including the basins of the Amur and Yenisei rivers.

KILLING LIFE.

The muddy flow almost completely kills life in the rivers. Suspended solids clog fish gills, leading to mass die‑offs. Water transparency falls—algae and other plants die, the water becomes saturated with plant toxins! Oxygen levels drop sharply. Fish either leave or perish.

Local residents already report a sharp decline in populations of grayling, taimen, lenok, and other valuable species. The water is literally dead!

Spawning grounds become covered with a thick layer of silt impregnated with poisons and are no longer suitable for fish reproduction. Mass mortality of aquatic invertebrates—larvae, insects, mollusks—is also recorded, which accordingly destroys the entire food chain.

In addition to poisoned waters, gold miners leave behind an altered river landscape. Channels turn into canals, banks are torn apart by machinery. Consequently, floodplain forests, swamps, and everything along the river are destroyed or dry up.

I also receive letters from local residents reporting the disappearance of springs and lakes near the placers. This occurs due to disruption of the hydrological regime; small tributaries dry up!

People also suffer, being forced to drink water saturated with hazardous substances! In the Amur Region, for example, there were cases where residents had to be supplied with delivered water because local rivers were polluted by prospectors. Water in wells near the rivers also becomes turbid. Drinking it is a health risk (heavy metals, phenols, etc. cause poisoning and chronic diseases). Livestock drinking from the rivers also suffers: there have been cases of illness in cattle and reindeer in gold‑mining areas.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

Gold prices are very high, demand is large and growing rapidly! Therefore, it is easier for companies to sometimes pay fines to the state than to stop gold mining. Moreover, fines are already included in the cost price as just another expense item, and it is completely insignificant compared to profits. And the state is in no hurry to “step on the heels” of the artels because money from gold mining flows into the treasury as taxes, and jobs are created in the regions.

In general, as always, “just business, nothing personal.”

And today this catastrophe is not even noticed by people, but I repeat: THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS OF RIVERS ARE POLLUTED EVERY YEAR. It is simply madness!

We have now launched an international petition and the Concept with a concrete proposal to states to create Territories of Total Ecological Peace worldwide. This year we will begin developing TPET projects by region with refined boundaries! The problem of nature’s destruction must be solved comprehensively and we must literally DEMAND absolute protection of pristine and slightly disturbed areas of wilderness.

I believe that solving problems piecemeal is already pointless. Ecosystems are on the verge of collapse. We need, URGENTLY, to withdraw areas of wilderness into global territories of total ecological peace. And we have less and less time!

Help us in our struggle! Sign the international petition on the TPET Concept page, study the proposal, talk about the problems, and invite people to join us.

Nature is dying right before our eyes.

But no one cares!

© PAVEL PASHKOV