[ivan_gammel]

"Tolstoevsky" is the new project of Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel, who now lives in Berlin (and created the most famous his work "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love" on Berlin Wall), based on surnames of Russian writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I've used this word just as a metaphor of slices of Russian culture known and popular on the West - the White part of picture of Russia, that usually consists of bad rulers and good people.

Regarding the media, the lack of news in English is surprising a bit, because I see here and there that something indeed is going on and can confirm it by examples of projects I'm aware of (and likely there are more that I'm not). I can see the simplification bias in general media, which can be explained by lack of interest to post-Soviet Russia (and I've seen publications explaining this with reduced financing of research of Russia in USA - one of the reasons why events in Ukraine were a big surprise for US government). As for scientific and technological media, one of the reasons can be the obscurity of Russian science and inexperience of the government in PR. I cannot find any traces of Buribay solar plant launch in non-Russian or-non solar energy media - how exactly could that happen? I can suggest only that such events and their coverage is not sexy enough for HN/Wired/whatever to be remembered or even discussed. And this project is not small, behind it are very strong businesses like Renova and Rusnano. Can you offer any other explanation beyond "nothing is happening"?

[woodandsteel]

Ok, I now see that there are some positive things going on in Russia, but that is because the last day you finally started posting some links that actually proved it.

I tend to believe negative views of Russia because its government is, overall, so awful, so it would seem to me unlikely it would be doing anything positive in that area. And there is also the matter of the Putin direct quotes on global climate change.

Which leads me to ask you, what is the media in Russia, which says what Putin tells it to say, saying about global climate change nowadays?

[ivan_gammel]

Media landscape in Russia is as complicated as everywhere, so I usually try to reconstruct the full picture from publications in business media - Kommersant (neutral, oldest quasi-independent media holding), Vedomosti (originally started by Financial Times, but sold to Russian investors, has light opposition flavor), Expert (in last 5 or 6 years got strong pro-Putin bias, but because of target audience is not filled with propaganda). All TV and radio stations in Russia do not worth any attention because of their strong bias. I also try to verify the interesting publication by reading official press releases and local newspapers (when some new project is completed, it may not receive major federal coverage, but it will be a notable event for locals or professional media). I do read state media sometimes, because they do not publish 100% lie (and even opinions quite often make sense), but I usually double-check their facts. It's not normal way to read news today, but I've been working as architect of media sentiment analysis software for some very high-profile customers (not Russian) in 2000s and have some analytical habits since that time.

[woodandsteel]

Interesting answer, but I see I should have been more specific in my question. I want to know what the TV and radio stations are saying about global climate change. That is because they are puppets of the Putin government, and so I assume that whatever they are saying about GCC is what the Putin government believes, or at least wants the public to believe.

[ivan_gammel]

It's hard to find examples for electronic media, but here's the biggest mainstream tabloid with strong pro-Putin position, explaining why climate change is not a myth, how it damages Russian nature and economy and how Russia can benefit (sic!) from joining global efforts on preventing it: http://www.kp.ru/daily/26521.5/3537467/

[woodandsteel]

That's good to know, so it seems the government is getting serious about climate change.

That said, your information in other comments says the government has been doing some things in this area, but so far it seems to be only 5% or 10% of what the US and China are doing, much less what is needed to avoid catastrophe. Maybe Putin's government is now getting more serious and will step things up.

[woodandsteel]

Ok, that lead to a further question I would like to ask you. To start, it seems to me that there are three main possibilities for Russia and renewable energy. One is that it will charge ahead at a rapid pace, the second is that it will move ahead but slowly, and the third is that it will halt new production and installations entirely.

From what I understand (which may be mistaken), the odds of the first are very low, like 1%, the third are maybe 20%, and so the most likely is the second.

You know a lot more about what is going on in Russia than I do, Ivan, so let me ask you, do you agree with my assessment, or is yours different, and if so, what are your reasons?