An oil spill from the LUKOIL-Komi Company's Oshsky Oil Field was

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An oil spill from the LUKOIL-Komi Company's Oshsky Oil Field was discovered on May 11. The oil flowed along the Kolva, Usa, and Pechora rivers. LUKOIL reported a spill of almost 100 tons of oil, having made a point that only 9 tons had got into the river. The Save Pechora Committee believes that the declared oil spill scale is understated. Activists have examined 208 km of the Kolva river and found out that only 3% of the bank had been cleaned up, although back in early June, LUKOIL reported that the accident’s consequences had been eliminated. The Russian Federal State Agency for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor) has estimated the damage to the environment at more than 300 million rubles. The journalists of Novaya Gazeta found out that the hazardous substances concentration in the Kolva river had been exceeded by 500 times after the oil spill.

Ivan Ivanov, the Save Pechora Committee’s chairman, and another member of the organization are going to go 357 km from the village of Parma near Usinsk to the village of Ust-Tsilma by boat. The expedition wants to visit 15 settlements, collect eyewitness accounts, take samples of water, soil, and bottom deposits to analyze the state of the environment.

The activists initially planned to spend 100 thousand rubles on the expedition. However, only 88 thousand have been raised on the Sila Slova Platform. Nevertheless, Ivanov considers the crowdfunding to be successful. Representatives of the Save Pechora Committee will adjust estimates by reducing the number of water samples and other analyzes and not staying in hotels. According to Ivan Ivanov, if necessary, they will raise the remaining necessary amount with the help of the organization’s members and its supporters.

"The fact that almost the entire amount has been raised means that we are doing something important. This is our first experience of this kind. I am very grateful to those who supported our expedition. This is also a serious encouragement. Now we need to buy food and all the things needed, prepare glassware for samples (in the laboratory), check the equipment. Tomorrow, on August 11, we are hopefully leaving for the starting point, where there will be a boat for us," Ivan Ivanov commented.

The activists promise to publish an investigation, based on the expedition’s results, in full or in part in the Ecological Bulletin of the Pechora-Side Newspaper, on the Save Pechora Committee’s website, in Ivan Ivanov's author blog on 7x7 and his YouTube channel.

In 2020, the 7x7 Online Newspaper and the Alliance of Independent Regional Publishers (AIRP) launched the Sila Slova Crowdfunding Platform for media editorial boards, initiative journalists, bloggers, and civic organizations. The project’s goal is to help media and journalists speak on complex topics and unite to prepare important materials. Fundraising on the platform is used to support investigative journalism, media initiatives, journalistic expeditions to problem regions, journalists who find themselves in a difficult situation.

In March 2021, a fundraiser to pay legal bills of Elena Pivovarova, the ex-editor-in-chief of the municipal Vpered (�forward, move on’) Newspaper of Bataysk, began on the Sila Slova Platform. A criminal case was opened against her for embezzlement (Part 3 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The journalist’s colleagues are sure that the criminal prosecution of Pivovarova is connected with her activities in advocating readers' interests. Within several months, more than 100 thousand rubles were raised to provide Elena Pivovarova with legal assistance.

In June, 7x7’s journalists Evgeny Malyshev and Ekaterina Malysheva started a crowdfunding campaign to make a film about a conflict between Russian and Romani people near Penza. The correspondents plan to go to Chemodanovka, where there was a mass brawl in June 2019, and talk to all parties to the conflict. The film will show both Russian and Romani people’s viewpoints.

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