As for your article, I don’t have access to the PDF, so I cannot verify it.

The place I grew up sometimes I could see Elbrus even though it is almost 300 km away. That’s for air pollution.

> in the early 1990s the air pollution became an issue of great public attention

This as well may be the coordinated effort to bring down every remnant of Soviet industrial force. You have no idea how many factories have been deliberately bring to their knees and closed down by “effective” new management.

The same way “green” policy is used today for economic warfare (just to think Germany being so stupid as to close their nuclear plants).