Andrei Rudomakha coordinates the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus (EWNC), a regional pressure group campaigning to preserve wild nature in the region.
Since 1997, Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus has exposed illegal landfills, the destruction of landscapes, and the contamination of waterways in the regions of Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, Rostov, Adygea, Karachayevo-Cherkesia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Some of its investigations also have exposed illegal land grabs by local Russian officials.
EWNC has actively campaigned against illegally built villas on the Black Sea and criticized construction in Sochi ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics as destructive to the environment.
HRDs are often subjected to acts of harassment, surveillance, physical attacks, threat, raids and searches on their offices and homes, slander and smear campaigns, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, and ill-treatment, as well as violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. There have also been cases where HRDs have been murdered as a result of their work.
