In 2006 President of Russia Vladimir Putin has signed into law the new Forest Code.

Among other things, the code has effectively eliminated the system of centralized forest protection. There used to be as many as 70,000 forest rangers, while the remaining workforce was reduced by 75%.

Logging companies were said to be the major beneficiaries of that law. Critics noted lobbying efforts by Ilim Pulp — a major paper pulp producer, partially owned by International Paper. Then Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev was one of its founders, and once had a 20% stake in the Ilim.

The effects of the new Forest Code are blamed for a host of issues, and are most commonly mentioned in relation to fires. Another notable story has been a massive infestation of forests in the Moscow Region with a bark beetle, that happened in 2013–2014.

The bark beetle invasion has left a lot of dead pines, which started to fall, blocking an access to forests.

In late 2018, I resumed running — my sport of choice since the high school. It was especially helpful that the apartment I rented was located at the edge of a town in the Moscow District. So all I had to do was put on a pair of sneakers and run along a magnificent forest route.

Very soon I realized that it was not actually running but a novel kind of a sport, which involved dodging a large number of dead pines blocking the way. And I didn’t like it at all.

After a brief search in the Internet I knew what to do. Just to be completely sure, I texted my brother and asked him whether the chainsaw I wanted to purchase was a good one, in his opinion.

Instead of doing what I expected — providing a simple yes or no answer — he did the right thing. He offered me to borrow his own chainsaw, and spent several hours training me to operate it safely.

Shortly afterwards, I was out there in the woods, making my first cuts with a chainsaw. Trying to regain myself…