The ecological movement in Russia has existed for more than 30 years. As the driving force behind environmental change in Russian society, the ecological movement has exerted a significant influence on the course of ongoing reforms. However, recently this movement has undergone profound transformations. The goal of this article is to consider theoretical issues concerning this movement in the context of a rapidly changing and risk‐laden post‐totalitarian society, emphasizing the key influences affecting the movement's transformation: changing local and national contexts, the movement's internal transformations caused by ideological and political diversification, changing patterns of resource mobilization, the split between “globalists”; and “localists,”;. and the growing gap between radicals and reformers.