I Came, I Saw, I Littered

Krasnodar, 17 July. The heightened interest of tourists to the stranded Rio dry cargo ship may result in contamination of the nearby wild beach. 

“The unique nature of the Azov and Black Sea coastlines, the West Caucasus, and other corners of the Krasnodar region is an asset of all Russian people. This is why we call our guests to keep order, to respect the environment and care for it, and to maintain its cleanliness. I would like to thank the Kabardinka municipality and all volunteers from Gelendzhik who assumed the responsibility to tidy the beach,” Svetlana Balaeva, regional Minister for Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage, commented. 

Earlier social network users had complained about the dirt in the area round the stranded ship. Local volunteers together with municipal workers put things in order, gathered the plastic and glass containers and bags with food leftovers thrown by the tourists – altogether it made up dozens of sacks of the garbage left on the beach. Since the huge cargo ship stranded between Novorossiysk and Gelendzhik in 2018, thousands of Kuban visitors and locals have been heading to the spot to see the sea ship from near, but not all of them have cared to remove their garbage.