Russian ban of wildlife fund signals isolation even on animal protection
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RIGA, Latvia — Russia has outlawed the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world’s largest environmental advocacy groups, claiming that it is undermining the country’s economy and limiting the work of its oil and gas giants as authorities continue to push out civil society organizations. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. ArrowRight The ousting of the WWF, the last major international environmental organization still operating in Russia, as well as the shuttering of several dozen local activist groups over the past year, signal a grim shift in Russia’s ecological policy, in which the war in Ukraine and the weight of sanctions on the economy have eclipsed projects aimed at preserving nature in the world’s largest country by area.
Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office on Wednesday designated the WWF as “an undesirable organization,” a label that makes the group and any affiliation with it illegal and forces it to shut down operations.
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The WWF had been involved in high-profile programs in Russia, including efforts to protect endangered tigers in the Far East and polar bears in the north. The polar bear initiative in particular was one of the last areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States, even as relations deteriorated in virtually every other area.
Moscow’s pushback against environmental nongovernmental organizations is a stunning departure from President Vladimir Putin’s policies from just a few years ago, when the Kremlin paraded its conservation initiatives.
In a statement this week, the authorities claimed that the WWF’s activities were “aimed at large enterprises engaged in the energy, oil and gas industries” to “collect information” about Russia’s environmental situation and were “shackling the economic development of the Russian Federation.”
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“Under the pretext of saving the environment, the WWF is engaged in activities aimed at preventing the implementation of the country’s policy on the industrial development of the Arctic, natural resources in the Arctic territories, the development and legitimization of restrictions that can serve as a basis for transferring the Northern Sea Route towards the U.S. exclusive economic zone,” the statement said.
Russia has spent years lobbying to establish the Northern Sea Route, a shortcut between Europe and Asia hugging its Arctic coast from Murmansk to Vladivostok, as an alternative to the current major trading route, which passes through mostly U.S.-allied areas and connects the regions through the narrow Suez Canal.
The invasion of Ukraine, however, halted much of the traffic in the Northern Sea Route, hindering Russia’s economic ambitions in the region.
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The designation of the WWF as undesirable is the latest in a string of bans amid a push against environmental groups in Russia.
It follows a complaint from Rashid Ismailov, an official who heads the Russian Ecological Society, who in April 2022 wrote a denunciation to the Justice Ministry asking it to label the international WWF and Greenpeace as “foreign agents” — another designation under Russian law.
Ismailov alleged that “the public positions of Greenpeace and WWF in relation to major Russian infrastructure projects” constitute “unfriendly actions” on their part, and that the groups overall “form a negative public opinion about the actions of the Russian government and companies in the field of nature conservation.”
The ministry at first declined the request, citing a formality: Both organizations belong to global institutions, but only Russian-registered NGOs can be deemed foreign agents.
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But Ismailov’s campaign ultimately succeeded. Last month, the Russian branch of Greenpeace shut down after being slapped with the “undesirable organization” label, which applies to foreign and international entities. Greenpeace faced similar accusations as the WWF, of “interfering” with Russia’s internal affairs and “undermining” the country’s economy.
In April, Russian authorities banned Bellona, an international environmental NGO headquartered in Norway, which left the country in 2022 after working there for three decades. All three international organizations have also been accused of financing or supporting local Russian NGOs labeled “foreign agents,” a designation that effectively prevents these groups from safely operating in the country.
WWF Russia on Thursday said it had terminated its relationship with the global body, and that it would no longer use the iconic panda logo or the WWF acronym. Its website has since been taken down.
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Until recently, the WWF had enjoyed official support, including presidential grants, for its work in Russia.
In 2018, the directors of WWF Russia, Igor Chestin and Yevgeny Schwartz, received letters of recognition from Putin. Four years earlier, Putin congratulated the organization on its 20th anniversary of working in Russia, saying that its activities “deserve the deepest recognition.”
The Russian leader, at least in the early years of his nearly quarter-century rule, was known to have a soft spot for animals — evidenced by his pack of dogs and frequent photo sessions with wild beasts, from snow leopards to deer.
In one famous photo op, Putin sported white coveralls as he attempted, but failed, to lead a flock of endangered white Siberian cranes on migration by riding a motorized hang glider.
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On a 2010 visit to the Arctic, Putin, then prime minister, made headlines for his highly publicized encounter with a bear, which he tagged with a GPS-enabled collar.
Putin also personally headed five “special projects” supported by the Kremlin, including conservation programs to protect snow leopards, beluga whales, polar bears, Amur tigers and Far Eastern leopards.
To much media fanfare, the Russian leader was pictured releasing animals into the wild, feeding cubs and riding across forests on a snowmobile in a massive furry hat.
Conservation projects also provided one of the few opportunities for rapprochement between the United States and Russia, whose relations have rapidly deteriorated over the past two decades, with practical cooperation limited to a few global security issues. In 2013, the former Cold War rivals teamed up to promote a global treaty offering stronger protection to polar bears.
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Aside from wild animals, Putin’s overall views on climate change also seemed to shift in recent years. He famously joked in 2003 that “climate change is not so bad in such a cold country as ours,” when asked if Russia would ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
“Two to three degrees wouldn’t hurt — we’ll spend less on fur coats, and the grain harvest would go up,” Putin said then.
In 2018, he repeated a debunked claim that climate change was caused by “changes of global character, cosmic changes, some invisible moves in the galaxy” and that humans had no role in the matter. The Kremlin’s position was that, if anything, Russia stood to benefit from climate change, opening up the Northern Sea Route to oil and gas tankers as the ice disappeared.
Putin has since softened his tone, switching from outright denials of human-caused climate change to musings about environmental threats posed to Russia, such as melting permafrost, deforestation and effects on agriculture.
In 2021, he warned that “global warming is happening in our country even faster than in many other regions of the world.”
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Source: The Washington Post
