Russia has classified information regarding the pollution of Anapa's beaches following an oil spill
Russian authorities have banned Rospotrebnadzor from releasing data on the levels of harmful substances in the sand and water along the Anapa coast following the 2024 oil spill. At the same time, the city plans to partially reopen its beaches to tourists as early as next season.
This was reported on May 13 by Russian Telegram channels.
The government has banned Rospotrebnadzor from sharing information about the levels of harmful substances in Anapa following the 2024 oil spill. The city plans to open its beaches to tourists in a month
The government has refused to publish information on measurements of harmful substances along the coast of the Krasnodar Krai following the 2024 oil spill. This is stated in a response from the local Rospotrebnadzor office to a request from municipal deputy Oleg Yantsen. A photo of the statement was published by environmentalist Yevgen Vytishko.
According to the statement, Rospotrebnadzor is indeed measuring the levels of harmful substances in the sand and water on the beaches in Anapa. The agency sends the monitoring results to a special government commission established to address the consequences of the tanker accident in the Kerch Strait in 2024.
At the same time, the government commission has prohibited Rospotrebnadzor from sharing the results of harmful substance measurements with other agencies, as well as from providing them to the media and bloggers.
In December 2024, the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 were involved in an accident while exiting the Kerch Strait due to a storm in the Black Sea. The Volgoneft-212, which broke in half, sank, while the stern of the Volgoneft-239 was washed ashore on the eastern coast of the Kerch Strait. As Vazhnye Istorii discovered, the ships had been prohibited from going to sea.
The tankers were carrying about 8,600 tons of fuel oil, some of which washed ashore in the Krasnodar Krai. The polluted beaches of Anapa were unsuitable for recreation, so they were closed for the entire tourist season. Authorities reported pumping oil from the sunken tankers, but they did not collect fuel oil from the water column due to a lack of appropriate technology.
In April 2026, the authorities began covering Anapa’s beaches with new sand in order to reopen them in early June for the tourist season.
Environmentalist Yevgeny Vityshko, who released a statement from the Kuban branch of Rospotrebnadzor, suggested that the authorities would also classify the results of measurements of harmful substances in the environment around Tuapse. Previously, fires broke out several times at the local oil refinery due to drone strikes, causing oil to fall on the city and fuel oil to spill into the water and onto the shoreline.
Read also: Attacks on oil refineries have costRussia over $7 billion since the start of the year — WP.
As a reminder, the day before, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Tuapse oil refinery for the fourth time in the last two weeks. A massive fire broke out on the refinery grounds following a series of explosions.
Recall that drones attacked Tuapse again, causing fires at the refinery and in the port.
In Tuapse, refinery capacity has decreased following the latest attack.
