Milan, Italy - Today's (Tuesday 2nd December 2003) statement by a Russian economic suggesting Moscow is now against ratifying the Kyoto Protocol was nothing more than pre-election bluster ahead of Moscow's Duma election this Sunday, according to WWF and Greenpeace.
A Russian economic advisor to President Putin, Andrei Illarionov, had stated that he believed Russia would not ratify Kyoto in its present form, because it placed "significant limitations on the economic growth of Russia".
Alexey Kokorin, the head of WWF's Climate Change program in Russia, said that Illarionov's statement amounts to pre-election political manoeuvring and does not represewnt a change in Russian policy.
"Illarionov does not speak for the President or the Russian Government," said Kokorin. "This is just the latest statement in a long line of predictions by Illarionov which have failed to come about. He opposed the Russian energy strategy which was then adopted in May 2003, and he poured cold water on the economic plan for GDP growth, which was also later adopted."
Rob Guterbock of Greenpeace UK added: "We doubt Putin really wants to go down in history as a weak leader who condemned millions of people to drought and hunger in order to appease a US president and his big oil buddies. While Illarionov's opinion will sound like music to the ears of the US administration, it's far too early to be reading the funeral notice of the Kyoto Protocol. The person who speaks for Russia is Vladimir Putin and he has made numerous statements in the past few months, reaffirming that Russia would ratify."
Elections for the Duma, the Russia Parliament's lower house, will take place on Sunday 7th December. The Russian Presidential elections will take place in March 2004. Russia is expected to ratify after those elections.
