The destruction of the treasured Lago-Naki Plateau — the protected heart of the Western Caucasus — continues.

The destruction of one of the most treasured wildlife refuges on the planet continues — the protected Lago-Naki Plateau in the Western Caucasus. The struggle for the plateau has been going on for many years. You remember, comrades, how we carried out an expedition there, met with activists, talked with people, and made a short documentary film. This is the very place where prosecutors who stood up to defend Lago-Naki and took the case to court were dismissed “due to loss of trust.” They had actually uncovered criminal collusion and the falsification of a state environmental review, and they were trying to help people protect the Lago-Naki wildlife refuge.

The defenders of nature are still there. They continue their struggle for Lago-Naki under constant pressure and after years of profound exhaustion. But love for their land, the desire to fight for nature and give meaning to their lives — is stronger than exhaustion. Stronger than any pressure! And this is the foundation of future global change. If everyone were like the defenders of the Lago-Naki Plateau, we would have changed the world long ago.

I have written before about the destruction of the plateau and what is happening there. At the bottom of this article, you will find links to additional materials — please read them and help spread this information!

Now I want to provide an update on the current situation around the Lago-Naki Plateau. Our comrades from there contacted me and shared information about what is happening right now. Scientists are currently discovering completely new and unusual forms of life on the Lago-Naki Plateau, studying this treasured, hidden refuge of wildlife. Yet at the very same moment, the monster of business, the iron machine of capitalism, is brazenly tearing into the living flesh of nature for profit. Businesses want to build a year-round ski resort here, bring in massive infrastructure, and send millions of people through the area every year. And officials are simply protecting commercial interests, actively looking for ways to enrich themselves while a UNESCO World Heritage property — a wildlife refugium — is being torn apart.

1. On June 21, 2024, it became known that the future site of the “Upper Village” hotel complex would be located within the habitat of extremely rare lichens that are already on the brink of extinction. Lichenologists carried out scientific surveys here and studied the area. Do not be misled by the fact that we are talking about lichens — they are leading indicators of the condition of local biological systems and evidence of just how ancient, unique and, most importantly, COMPLEX the ecological relationships woven together at Lago-Naki are. There are almost no places like this left on the planet!

   
   

2. By August 21, 2024, large-scale construction of infrastructure for future commercial projects was already underway. Forests were being cleared, heavy machinery was being brought in, trenches were being dug, and pipes were being laid. The mechanical monster was moving toward Lago-Naki, trying to break through and destroy this biological refuge for the sake of short-term profit. Defenders of the Lago-Naki Plateau report that around 30 hectares of unique natural land have already been cleared for the linear infrastructure project and approximately 13,000 trees have been cut down. To build the resort, officials and commercial developers need to bring in water pipelines, a water intake system, sewage infrastructure, electricity, roads, retaining structures, machinery platforms and much more — all of this has to be brought toward the nature reserve, cutting the surrounding natural landscape into pieces.

   
   

3. Then, in the summer of 2025, heavy machinery reached the high-mountain meadows of the Lago-Naki Plateau itself. Engineering and geological drilling was carried out in alpine and subalpine areas, damaging ancient untouched nature, tearing up the soil and destroying Red Data Book-listed plants. At that time, our people documented the destruction of at least one hundred specimens belonging to four protected plant species on the Lago-Naki Plateau. The most frightening and dangerous aspect is that high-mountain soil and vegetation cover recovers extremely slowly, while heavy machinery destroys not only plant communities, but also the microrelief, turf, soil communities and an entire system of microhabitats.

   
   

4. In that same year, 2025, UNESCO demanded that work on the plateau be stopped and that infrastructure development leading toward it be halted. In Decision 47 COM 7B.30, the World Heritage Committee stated that any large-scale infrastructure would cause enormous damage to this biological refuge.

   
   
5. Then, on August 21, 2025, a scandal emerged around all of this that revealed the scale of the self-serving interests involved. The contract with Montazh LLC was worth nearly 2 billion rubles. Initially, no advance payment to the contractor was предусмотрено, but the terms were later changed and the company received 545.5 million rubles upfront. The prosecutor’s office challenged these changes in court. The court ruled them unlawful and ordered Montazh LLC to return 545.5 million rubles to the state, as well as pay another 48.3 million rubles in interest. It was the local prosecutors who fought to recover this money — and this story shows that while some are trying to destroy the Lago-Naki Plateau, others are already actively carving up enormous sums of money.

And now we arrive at 2026. I deliberately listed the events that preceded what is happening today. The carving up of money, the dismissal of prosecutors “due to loss of trust,” and the effective appropriation of a unique wildlife refuge for profit. This is the model of how Russia’s protected natural heritage is being destroyed!

On July 7, 2026, the work continued again: defenders of the Lago-Naki Plateau documented heavy machinery, pipes, a large volume of already crushed rock, and damage to the forest and soil surface. Full-scale construction corridors are being brought toward the plateau, literally cutting this unique natural landscape into pieces! The next blow will strike the very core of the treasured Lago-Naki Plateau.

And now look at just how terrifying this is: at this very moment, SCIENTISTS are working on the Lago-Naki Plateau and discovering completely new and astonishing forms of life. They are literally proving the importance of this territory, demonstrating how unique this refugium is and why it must be protected with everything we have! Animals and plants have nowhere left to hide from humans — everything has already been destroyed and devastated — and while scientists are gathering evidence, at this very same moment the mechanical monster is breaking through the surrounding wilderness toward its protected heart.

And so, just one week after machinery and infrastructure construction for the future resort were once again documented, a scientific paper on the ants of Adygea was published on July 14, 2026. Scientists describe a unique species that was discovered here and inhabits the subalpine zone of Lago-Naki. The species’ nest itself is associated with the limestone microstructure of the landscape — cracks and karst microcavities in boulders. The authors describe the species as a Western Caucasian microendemic and the only taxon among the studied myrmecofauna that is endemic to Adygea.

The officials’ philosophy of “develop the land now, study it later” does not withstand any criticism. Right before their eyes, scientists are demonstrating and proving that any intervention on the Lago-Naki Plateau right now WILL IRREVERSIBLY DESTROY SPECIES WE DO NOT EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT. AFTER ALL, WE HAVE ONLY JUST DISCOVERED THEM.

On that same day, our people — defenders of the Lago-Naki Plateau — published evidence of the destruction of nature. Landslide deformations, damage and new construction work were documented there. In 2026, Russia’s Ministry of Transport itself spoke about major elevation differences and increased seismic activity. For the third stage, which is only 7.4 km long, more than 2.5 km of reinforced-concrete retaining structures, a bridge and large-scale earthworks are planned.

Do not confuse this with ordinary road reconstruction or minimal environmental impact: these are multi-kilometer lines cutting the wilderness into pieces and held in place only by massive reinforced-concrete infrastructure.

And then, quite recently, on August 12–13, 2026, “exploratory drilling” appeared again on the Lago-Naki Plateau. Defenders reported a new drilling rig and a freshly drilled borehole in the buffer zone of the Caucasus Nature Reserve. They filed an appeal with the prosecutor’s office and personally documented everything. But tell me: how are ordinary local prosecutors supposed to react now, knowing that other prosecutors were previously removed from office for defending the Lago-Naki Plateau? And were thrown out in disgrace “due to loss of trust.”

Madness!

Genuine systemic madness!

On August 27, 2026, according to the defenders, drilling resumed even after a new direct demand from UNESCO to stop all work. In Decision 48 COM 7B.82, adopted in 2026, the Committee once again specifically addressed Lago-Naki:

First, UNESCO expressed serious concern over an attempt to present new boundaries of the property in such a way that, in particular, the Lago-Naki Plateau would be excluded, and stated directly that these territories are recognized as part of the property and contribute to its Outstanding Universal Value. In other words, UNESCO is aware of plans by officials to alter the boundaries of the Caucasus Nature Reserve in order to “carve out” a vast area for their own self-serving interests.

Second, the strategic environmental assessment presented in 2020 was found to be insufficient. UNESCO once again demanded the immediate cessation of all work on the Lago-Naki Plateau and that construction of the resort within the World Heritage property not proceed. The Committee again warned that large-scale tourism infrastructure could meet the conditions for inscribing the “Western Caucasus” on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Third, UNESCO experts also opposed the Lago-Naki–Guzeripl road, which is being confidently pushed toward these treasured territories so that millions of tourists can later be brought along it and enormous profits extracted.

I reviewed the official material published by Russia’s Ministry of Transport on August 13, 2026 — so this is another very recent development. It makes one’s head spin to see how calmly officials present the fact that, apparently, the third stage of construction of the Guzeripl–Lago-Naki Plateau road began in 2026: the first and second stages have been completed, the third stage covers another 7.4 km, geodetic surveys and earthworks have already been carried out, the contractor is laying the road layers, and completion is scheduled for 2031.

AND THIS IS HAPPENING WHILE UNESCO EXPERTS ARE SPEAKING OF A CATASTROPHIC BLOW TO THE PROTECTED HEART OF THE WESTERN CAUCASUS, while Russian scientists are finding ever more evidence of the unique importance of the Lago-Naki Plateau for the preservation of life.

But the Ministry of Transport, completely calmly, routinely and almost casually, keeps chewing over the idea that construction like this is somehow normal. Just another routine task for our bureaucrat!

That is the pain of it, comrades! And this is only one part of the broader destruction of the country’s protected-area system that is happening right now. In many ways, officials are waiting for the adoption of a bill that has already been pushed through its first reading and would allow the boundaries of any protected natural area in the country to be changed. If it is adopted, they will do exactly the same thing, but now completely officially and without obstacles — destroying protected lands and dividing up the economic rent extracted from our Motherland’s natural heritage.

Read more: 

• Prosecutors and the public against the destruction of the Lago-Naki Plateau
• Prosecutors who defended the Lago-Naki Plateau were dismissed “due to loss of trust”
• Authorities confirmed radioactive contamination of the Lago-Naki Plateau
• They want to erase the crimes surrounding the Lago-Naki Plateau for the benefit of commercial interests

Share this material and help in this difficult struggle. When reposting it on social media, be sure to add your own words and opinions, speak publicly to your audience and raise the question of why protecting the Lago-Naki Plateau matters. The more people speak about these problems and the more people demand change, the greater our chances of victory amid all this chaos and absolute madness.

Fight for Life!

© PAVEL PASHKOV