Bikin National Park defies Russia's strict new rules with local resilience

Russia’s national parks once offered thousands of visitor accommodations, but stricter sanitary rules have left only a few legally operational. Among the exceptions is Bikin National Park, where director Alexey Kudryavtsev has overseen major infrastructure projects over the past decade. His work includes building a hospital, a kindergarten, and even a bakery—yet compliance with new regulations remains a challenge. Alexey Kudryavtsev has led Bikin National Park for ten years. Under his management, the park has constructed essential facilities, from a hospital and post office to a library and House of Crafts. Funding for these projects, totalling around 350 million rubles since 2015, came through the Amur Tiger Center, which builds the infrastructure before transferring it to the park for operation.

Despite these efforts, Kudryavtsev refuses to hand over the hospital to municipal control. He cites poor maintenance by the Ministry of Health as the reason. The director also criticises what he calls 'dekulakization'—a term implying heavy-handed enforcement by Moscow inspectors. Bikin National Park now employs 74 people, mostly locals, many of whom gained official employment for the first time. The park’s visitor lodgings, however, are classified as 'tourist shelters' due to unclear national standards. Only a few parks, including Sochi, Krasnoyarsk Pillars, and Losiny Ostrov, still meet the new sanitary requirements.

Bikin National Park continues to function under the new rules, but most of Russia’s park accommodations have shut down. The facilities built under Kudryavtsev’s leadership provide jobs and services, yet regulatory pressures remain a hurdle. Without clearer standards, the future of such projects stays uncertain.