Ecologists Fret Over Presidential Critique

Environmental groups on Thursday voiced concern that their activities might be curtailed after President Vladimir Putin issued a sharp criticism of their activities.

Meeting with nongovernmental organizations on Wednesday, Putin said that environmental groups were often used to advance business interests and that environmental impact reports should not put a brake on the country's economic development.

"As soon as we start doing something, one of the arguments in the attacks against us is always environmental problems," Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript of his comments.

"When we started building the port near Finland, our partners ... invested money into environmental organizations, just to prevent the development of this project because it creates competition for them in the Baltic," he said, apparently referring to the Primorsk oil terminal.

Putin also mentioned LUKoil's platform in the Caspian Sea and Transneft's pipeline project to the Pacific coast as examples of projects assailed by environmentalists.

Vladimir Slivyak, co-head of the EcoDefense group, said he was concerned that Putin's remarks could be followed by either the watering down or outright abolishment of a law requiring environmental impact reports for major projects.

"Environmental impact reports are the last democratic mechanism that in some way contains dangerous projects," Slivyak said in a telephone interview.

By law, the Natural Resources Ministry is tasked with carrying out environmental assessments. But officials who make the final ruling on a project's safety must also take into account independent reports, should they exist.

Slivyak said that Putin's words could be a sign that NGOs might soon lose the right to present independent reports to the ministry.

Alexei Yablokov, head of the Center for Ecological Policy of Russia, told Ekho Moskvy radio that Putin's remarks may be interpreted by State Duma deputies as a call to action.

Ivan Blokov, head of Greenpeace Russia, said Putin appeared not to be fully informed of the issues and may have confused projects in the Baltic and Caspian seas.

LUKoil spokesman Dmitry Dolgov said his company had never received environmental complaints about its Caspian oil platform.

EcoDefense did loudly criticize LUKoil's Baltic platform, he said, although the project was in compliance with Russian and international regulations.

Dolgov said that LUKoil supported Putin's viewpoint.

"We agree that often these organizations represent not so much the interests of environmentalists as of the competition," Dolgov said.

Environmentalists have had some success in stopping controversial projects.

This spring, the Natural Resources Ministry halted preparations on the Pacific oil pipeline because it cut too close to Lake Baikal.

The move came after Greenpeace conducted a surprise check together with local officials. Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of the Federal Service for Natural Resources Oversight, later held a joint news conference with Greenpeace. He said the ministry would push for criminal charges to be brought against a Transneft subcontractor for illegal logging.

Michiel Hotte, coordinator for ALTA, a coalition of NGOs fighting for the protection of leopards and tigers in the Far East, denied that environmental groups were intent on blocking the pipeline.

"It's just pure nonsense," he said. "I have not met a conservationist who is against this pipeline.

"Conservationists are just against this route. It's the most damaging route possible."

Hotte said that building the pipeline farther away from Lake Baikal would indeed cost more, but that Russia was obligated to protect Baikal because of its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.