Forest fires in Siberia: features of reflection in the Change.Org's protest discourse

The paper presents the results of the analysis of petitions created in the Russian-language segment of the Change.org website in connection with forest fires in 2019 in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts of the Russian Federation. According to the authors of online initiatives, the crisis situation was caused by incorrect management and legal decisions regarding forest “control zones”, deliberate arson and illegal logging. In the vast majority of petitions, the events in Siberia in the summer of 2019 were considered in the context of various negative consequences of forest fires. The way out of the crisis situation, in the views of the initiators of e-petitions, assumed, first of all, the introduction of an emergency regime and the implementation of measures to protect animals affected by fires. It was revealed the undisputed leader in terms of the level of support was the only petition that received more than a million votes. The factors of its popularity among Internet users were active distribution in social media, information support in the Russian mass media, as well as promotion, in addition to the Russian-language, in four other language segments of the Change.org platform.