Chinese tourists drowned in Lake Baikal a week before the bill on clear-cut logging was passed.

The law threatening Lake Baikal’s nature has been adopted and will enter into force on March 1, 2026 — from that date, legal clear-cutting of ancient forests will begin, roads will be built through protected taiga, and lands will be transferred out of the state forest fund into private business hands for mass tourism. Regional officials do not even try to hide it: the main interest is in millions of tourists from China, for whose sake they are ready to destroy a refuge of wildlife with no equal anywhere on the planet.

Our Baikal has been suffering for a long time from the tourist influx. These problems are not new.

And then, a week before the law enters into force, on February 20, 2026, a scandal for the whole country — a group of Chinese tourists with a child drowned on Lake Baikal. It happened near Cape Khoboy (Olkhon Island): they fell through the ice together with a UAZ “Bukhanka” minibus. There were nine people in the vehicle (eight tourists and the driver). Rescuers have already found the bodies of seven victims; one tourist survived and pulled himself out of the water.

The trip itself was organized by a local resident who regularly drove tourists from China across the frozen lake in winter. Tourist groups are willing to pay huge sums for this; prices vary, but the average is 65,000 rubles. Across Baikal’s pristine waters locked under ice, for that money they will drive you in a “bukhanka,” jump over cracks with loud music and tea.

For a person — entertainment. For nature, for Baikal’s intimate refuge — each time it is stress and exhaustion. But that is how it has long been here: a steady income for very many people.

How did it happen that the tourists drowned? The driver saw a huge crack in the ice and decided to jump it — he accelerated as hard as he could, revved the engine, and the vehicle dropped nose-first straight into the icy fissure. The crack itself was three meters wide, and some sources report the water depth as 18 meters.

EMERCOM rescuers, using an underwater camera, located the bodies of the Chinese tourists, including a 14-year-old child — reportedly on the very bottom. In total, seven tourists and the driver died. They booked this “extreme excursion” directly with the driver, as many do on Baikal, so there were no documents and no oversight.

The driver was 44-year-old Nikolai Dorzheev, the media write. In the past he was a youth football coach, and, according to the Telegram channel “112,” he had a criminal past: he served time for robbery and after release began arranging excursion tours for tourists. The media also уточняют that the driver’s wife worked at a local center of shamanic practices; the family generally cultivated an image of “shamanism,” which helped attract good clients by telling mythical stories about Baikal’s shamans and spirits. In the phones of some tourists, the driver’s number was even saved with the note “shaman.”

As it turned out, this case is not unique. For example, a month earlier, on January 28, 2026, not far from Olkhon Island, another “bukhanka” overturned, and one woman died as a result. Here is what the Ministry of Internal Affairs wrote in an official report:

“According to preliminary data, the driver of a UAZ off-road vehicle transporting tourists drove into a fissure in the ice; as a result, the vehicle overturned. The woman died at the scene from her injuries before the arrival of the medical team.”

The media also report that 11 people have already died since the beginning of the year — meaning that now, together with the new deaths of Chinese tourists on February 20, the total is already 18 people. This information was published by LenTV24.

Baikal is exhausted. 

It is highly indicative that all of this is happening right before the law enters into force — the same law by which they want to “develop” Baikal, cut down ancient forests, and do it all for the sake of millions of Chinese tourists. Fragile ecosystems will not withstand this. Even a single sunken UAZ can inflict catastrophic damage on nature, because Baikal is an exceptionally valuable freshwater system with a high level of endemism. Let alone what will happen if the ancient forests around Baikal are cut down, the shorelines are seized, and constant human pressure begins across all local ecosystems.

No — Baikal will not withstand it. The refuge of wildlife will be destroyed in the coming years, and it will be impossible to stop the degradation of ecosystems.

Meanwhile, “shamans” with a criminal past will actively deliver tourists to any point on Baikal. This is what they are turning a priceless wildlife refugium into.

Allies!

For more than two years we fought for Baikal, spoke out against this dangerous law, but unfortunately we did not manage to stop it — it has been adopted. In a week it comes into force. We propose not to give up and to continue the fight: we have no resources for large-scale actions, but we will try, as far as possible, to monitor targeted cases of nature destruction even after the law takes effect, and to slow down the reckless plundering of Baikal’s ecosystems.

We have launched Public Monitoring on an open-ended basis; it also includes a “Submit a Signal” form for everyone who documents violations of environmental legislation on Baikal. 

Public Monitoring

We will examine every case and act!

© PAVEL PASHKOV