Translated material
Large-scale deforestation continues on Lake Baikal
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Authorities do not comply with the law on clear-cutting on Lake Baikal, which came into force in March 2026. This was reported by State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Markhaev, who, together with State Duma deputy from the Irkutsk region Sergei Levchenko and social activist Lyubov Alikina, came to Baikal to check how the law is being implemented.
“Alas, there is nothing to please those who sincerely worry about the fate of Lake Baikal. There is still no government commission, as the law says, security officials, deputies, senators, governors and scientists,” writes Markhaev.
At the same time, marks have already appeared on the trees, which mean that they will be cut down. According to the deputy, in Bezymyannaya Bay there is a SEZ A limited territory with a special legal status in relation to the rest of the state. “Baikal Harbor” has been operating heavy equipment for a month now, destroying vegetation near Lake Baikal.
Markhaev adds that representatives of the Eastern Environmental Baikal Interdistrict Prosecutor’s Office “on the territory of the resident oligarch of the SEZ, with an area of 326 hectares, do not directly see the destruction of the forest and do not stop the cutting of trees.”
At the same time, not only what company representatives call “tree and shrub vegetation,” but also trees are destroyed. This is evidenced by photographs published by Markhaev.
Deforestation in the Baikal Harbor SEZ
Vyacheslav Markhaev
Who manages the SEZ?
The Baikal Harbor website says that Bezymyannaya Bay will be a tourist resort with an area of 382 hectares. The general director of the SEZ is Maxim Sharipov, who has also been working in the Ministry of Tourism of Buryatia since at least 2020, DOXA was convinced based on leaks.
Maxim Sharipov
SEZ "Baikal Harbor"
At the same time, hotels in Bezymyannaya Bay will belong to Cosmos Hotel Group, which is part of AFK Sistema owned by oligarch and billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov. His fortune as of 2022 was estimated at $1.7 billion.
Hotel project in Bezymyannaya Bay
Cosmos Hotel Group
In 2025, Novaya Gazeta wrote that Yevtushenkov’s company wants to build a complex in the bay, which will include a hotel with 100 rooms, 14 duplexes and 12 cottages, VIP houses with a lounge area, glamping, a congress hall, a geothermal spa and a bath complex.
More than 85% of the area where construction is planned to begin is covered with forest, which, according to Markhaev, has already begun to be cut down.
Clear-cutting law
On March 1, 2026, amendments to the federal law “On the Protection of Lake Baikal” came into force, which allow clear cutting of forests in the vicinity of the lake.
At the same time, the law allows for clear cuttings as part of sanitary measures - in cases where selective cuttings do not ensure the restoration of dead forests. The Kedr publication, citing ecologists, writes that this could damage the ecology of the region and lead to healthy forests being destroyed.