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23 May 2000

PRESS RELEASE

Putin Axes Ecology Committee, Leads Russia Toward Environmental Crisis

For More Information, contact David Gordon: 510/251-8800x304 or dkgordon@igc.org

Oakland, CA - Russian President Vladimir Putin abolished RussiaТs State Committee on Ecology last weekend, effectively doing away with the only government agency that had any regulatory power over the environment. The move will fold the responsibilities of the Committee into the Ministry of Natural Resources, an agency that has been responsible for facilitating the extraction of the country's large reserves of oil, gas, and minerals. The Russian Federal Forest Service was also abolished, and that body will also be folded into the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Russia's State Committee on Ecology was responsible for carrying out environmental inspections and environmental impact reviews and enforcing the country's environmental laws. It is unclear how these tasks will be handled by the Ministry of Natural Resources, which has usually supported the most environmentally destructive natural resource projects in Russia. Victor Danilov-Danilyan, chair of the State Committee on Ecology, called the decision an "absurd step that does not comply with the spirit or the letter of Russian law".

David Gordon, director of programs at California-based Pacific Environment and Resources Center (PERC), voiced concern over the move. "This is the equivalent of abolishing our own Environmental Protection Agency and handing its responsibilities to an industry-friendly body like the Department of Energy. The agencies have two entirely different missions, and one is needed to watchdog the other. This is the undoing of more than a decade of attempts at getting some checks and balances into the Russian regulatory system."

PERC is a non-profit organization that supports citizens' environmental groups throughout resource-rich Siberia and the Russian Far East, where the pressure for natural resource development has been greatly increasing. This development is often at odds with the areaТs rich biodiversity and vast wilderness.

Russian environmental groups have expressed concern that Putin's restructuring will leave the country without any environmental authority and will lead to a worsening of RussiaТs ecological crisis. Led by the Russian Center for Ecological Policy and the Socio-Ecological Union, these groups fear that the decision could impact RussiaТs environmental security and lead to even more harmful environmental projects, threatening RussiansТ constitutional rights to a healthy environment. They have asked President Putin to use this opportunity instead to strengthen Russia's federal environmental authorities.

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