Russia

Russia operates the largest hydropower fleet in the post-Soviet space and one of the largest in the world, with installed capacity exceeding 50 GW across the Volga, Yenisei, Angara, Lena, and dozens of other river systems. RusHydro, the state-controlled giant that manages most of this infrastructure, is simultaneously modernizing Soviet-era plants, seeking state support for stalled projects like the long-delayed Krapivinskaya dam on the Tom River, and exploring new capacity on the Amur and in Siberia.

This section covers Russia’s hydropower sector in full: capacity upgrades and equipment replacements at existing plants, regulatory decisions and environmental hearings for new projects, the development of small hydropower for remote communities in Siberia and the Far East, and the technical and financial challenges of maintaining infrastructure that in many cases was built in the 1950s and 1960s.

We also cover the international dimension of Russian hydropower — including the contested study of a proposed Mongolian dam on the Egiin Gol river and its potential impact on Lake Baikal, one of the most ecologically sensitive water bodies on Earth. Russia’s hydropower sector rarely receives sustained coverage in English-language media. We treat it as the major story it is.