Crude Accountability's 20 years of environmental justice

The Civil Society Working Group on the Caspian Framework Convention Forms

One year later, Crude Accountability spearheaded the formation of the Civil Society Working Group on the Caspian Framework Convention (or Tehran Convention) along with regional environmental activists. The Working Group ensures greater public involvement in the ratification and protocol development of the Convention.

Ever Decreasing Circles

Crude Accountability releases Ever Decreasing Circles (2004), a film about the village of Berezovka, Kazakhstan. Toxic exposure from an accident at the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field just five kilometers away was linked to severe health problems amongst the village's children and adults.

Bucket Brigade Air Monitoring

In August 2004, Crude Accountability conducts Bucket Brigade Air Monitoring Training for community leaders in Berezovka, enabling them to do independent air monitoring in the village.

One step further...

Crude Accountability and the Berezovka Initiative Group file a complaint with the Office of Compliance, Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for multiple violations of IFC social and environmental policy at Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field.

Results from the citizen air monitoring

In September 2004, the first air monitoring data gathered in Berezovka showed 25 toxins in the air.

Concerns about Berezovka mount

Crude Accountability and Berezovka activists appeal to the President of the World Bank and the President of Kazakhstan in 2005 to relocate the community of Berezovka because of concerns regarding pollution from the Karachaganak Field.

Advocating for Andrey Zatoka 2006-2007

Crude Accountability works as part of an international coalition for the release of wrongfully imprisoned environmental activist and board member Andrey Zatoka in Turkmenistan. He is released in March 2007.

Searching for environmental justice in Russia

2007 - Crude begins campaigning to hold IFC accountable for Port of Taman financing in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, in partnership with Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus (EWNC)

Saving Taman!

Initiative Group, Saving Taman! is created to hold IFC accountable at the Port of Taman. In November 2007, Crude Accountability, Saving Taman!, and EWNC file the first of three complaints against the IFC financing of the Port of Taman with the CAO of the IFC.

Supporting grassroots environmental activism

Crude Accountability holds Bucket Brigade training on the Taman Peninsula for local activists, enabling them to do independent air monitoring.

Silence is Betrayal

Crude Accountability releases the short film, Silence is Betrayal: Voices from the village (2008). The film looks at how the villagers of Berezovka, Kazakhstan were risking their lives in the face of the growing global demand for fossil fuels.

Andrey Zatoka faces imprisonment again

Crude Accountability joins an international coalition to free Andrey Zatoka as he is imprisoned a second time in 2008. He is freed from prison in late 2009 and forced to leave Turkmenistan permanently. 

Oil spill in Kerch Strait

Following an oil spill in the Kerch Strait in 2009, construction of the Port of Taman was temporarily halted. Crude Accountability and Saving Taman! share data and information with international journalists.

Monitoring environmental destruction in Karachaganak

Findings of CAO report on stacks at Karachaganak reveal that hydrogen sulfide has not been monitored by the company for three years, and retrofitting is urgently needed.

The True Cost of Chevron Campaign

From 2010-2012 Crude Accountability worked with US and international NGOs to reveal the damage done by Chevron to communities and the environment in Kazakhstan. This included delivering statements to the Chevron Annual Shareholder meeting from the Berezovka villagers and contributing to the alternative annual report put together by activists called The True Cost of Chevron.

Taman: The Edge of the World

Crude Accountability releases film, Taman: The Edge of the World (2011), about the Taman Peninsula and the IFC financing of the Port of Taman in Russia. The film documents the struggles of the residents of Taman, as they fight to protect their community from oil and other industrial development, which is threatening their environment, economy, and way of life.

Prove They Are Alive!

Launched in 2013, the team includes Crude Accountability (USA), the  Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights  (Russia),  Freedom Files  (Russia), the  Norwegian Helsinki Committee ,  Human Rights Center Memorial ,  Human Rights Watch  as well as independent experts and civil society activists in Turkmenistan.

Lobbying on the Hill

Crude Accountability and Prove They Are Alive! complete a briefing on Capitol Hill on enforced disappearances in Turkmenistan.

The fight against Karachaganak goes on...

Crude Accountability and Green Salvation (Almaty, Kazakhstan) file complaints with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) against BG, ENI, and Chevron for numerous violations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises at the Karachaganak Oil and Gas Condensate Field in Kazakhstan in 2013.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Our first collaboration with AAAS on satellite imagery and oil spills in the Caspian Sea results in the report, Hidden in Plain Sight (2013), about ongoing oil spillage in the Turkmen section of the Caspian Sea. Crude Accountability presents the report findings at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which financed the oil fields responsible for the leaks.

Medieval Torture in Modern Turkmenistan

Crude Accountability and the Prove They Are Alive! Campaign publish report, Medieval Torture in Modern Turkmenistan (2014), about the conditions in the infamous Ovadan Depe prison. The report includes satellite imagery showing the construction of the prison.

A worsening situation Berezovka

In 2014, 25 children and adults from Berezovka were poisoned by toxic emissions from the Karachaganak Field

An international spotlight on Turkmenistan

From 2014-2018, Crude Accountability and the Prove They Are Alive! Campaign provide cases to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances from Turkmenistan, which the Working Group presents to the government of Turkmenistan.

Documenting disappearances

Crude Accountability and the Prove They Are Alive! Campaign publish the first list of the Disappeared in Turkmenistan. We update the list numerous times, most recently in 2021.

Recognizing Turkmenistan's human rights record on the international stage

UN Human Rights Council recognizes Boris Shikhmuradov as a victim of enforced disappearances in Turkmenistan in 2014.

Environmental defender in Russian prison

Crude Accountability and EWNC members attempt to visit environmental defender Yevgeniy Vitishko in the Sadovaya Prison Colony in Tambov, Russia. EWNC members are permitted to see him. Crude staff are not but spend the day at the prison facility.

Karachaganak: Children in Exchange for Oil

Crude Accountability releases the film, Karachaganak: Children in Exchange for Oil (2015), about the poisoning of children in the village from toxic emissions

The Government of Kazakhstan makes the decision to relocate Berezovka. KPO Consortium will pay for the relocation.

Drawing attention to the Disappeared

In a rare trip to Turkmenistan in 2015, US Secretary of State John Kerry mentions “87 prisoners of concern” in his remarks to President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

Building relationships between environmental defenders in Russia and the US

Crude Accountability holds US/Russian exchange program for environmental defenders protecting the Black Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, hosting visits in the US and Russia

Global Recognition

Crude Accountability's short film, Karachaganak: Children in Exchange for Oil, wins in the category for best screenplay in Un Mundo Sin Mordaza's film festival, The Right Cut in 2016.

Growing attention to human rights abuses in Turkmenistan

In a meeting with German Chancellor Angel Merkel, Turkmenistan’s president agrees to discuss prison visits by foreign diplomats.

Parting Song

Crude Accountability and the Prove They Are Alive! Campaign publish Parting Song, a volume of poetry by Batyr Berdyev, a Turkmen diplomat disappeared since 2003. The campaign holds a series of poetry readings from the volume in Warsaw, Washington, DC, and London.

We Will Not Turn Away

Crude Accountability releases a short film, We Will Not Turn Away, about the poisoning of children in Berezovka.

Relocating Berezovka

The village of Berezovka is completely relocated in 2018, after over a decade of human and environmental rights violations.

Berezovka teens seek medical treatment

With support from Crude Accountability, Berezovka teens diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy at independent medical clinic in Moscow and provided medication.

Bringing attention to Azerbaijan

Crude Accountability participates in the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations to report on environmental, social, and human rights violations by Azerbaijan in the oil and gas sector.

Adding environmental justice to the OSCE

Crude Accountability is instrumental in the creation of first ever Climate Justice Group in the Civic Solidarity Platform, introducing climate justice to the OSCE community.

The Other Side of Oil

In partnership with Just Journalism, Crude Accountability releases The Other Side of Oil (2020), a film about Chinese investments in the oil and gas sector in Kazakhstan.

In 2021, Global Investigative Journalism Network names The Other Side of Oil as one of the best investigative films of 2020.

Turkmenistan: A Model Kleptocracy

Crude Accountability publishes Turkmenistan: A Model Kleptocracy (2021) in English, Russian, and Turkmen, documenting corruption and kleptocratic practice in this secretive country.

Road to China

Crude Accountability publishes a comprehensive report on Chinese investments in Central Asia, Road to China (2021), as part of our project researching Chinese oil and gas investments in the region.

Flames of Toxicity

Crude Accountability publishes the report, Flames of Toxicity, about the environmental and human rights violations in key fossil fuel industrial sites in Azerbaijan.

A Focus on Climate Justice

Crude Accountability attends the 2022 OSCE Human Dimension Conference in Warsaw, hosting an event on climate issues as part of the Civic Solidarity Platform Working Group on Climate Justice. Crude Accountability continues to raise climate issues on the OSCE level by publishing a series of articles, blogs, and videos on climate justice in the OSCE region, with personal stories and policy recommendations.