Cup has impact on Russia’s environment

October Island was considered to some “a little corner of heaven” in the Russian city of Kaliningrad.

Then a World Cup stadium was built on the island.

Russia claims its World Cup stadiums meet the highest environmental standards, yet some have been built on top of ecologically sensitive areas. The site of the 35,000-seat Kaliningrad Stadium, where England and Spain will play, was one of Kaliningrad’s last natural wetland sites, an island on the polluted Pregolya River. Its soft clay protected water-bird colonies from the port city’s industrial development under first German, then Soviet, then Russian rule.

That changed in 2014 when more than a million tons of sand was spread on the site to stabilize it for the stadium construction.

Depending on your view, it’s either a triumph of engineering or an environmental disaster.

“It was a typical delta island, with peat and a wetland reed-bed. It was a little corner of heaven in the city, where birds lived,” said local ecologist Alexandra Korolyova. “Really, if Russia paid more attention to protecting the environment, it could potentially have become a reservation or national park within the city.”

Korolyova campaigned against the stadium as part of local environmental organization Eco Defense because the island was “a filter” for the polluted river and “we’ve lost a lot and I don’t see what we’ve gained.”