Kremlin's exterior illumination to be switched off as part of Earth Hour on Saturday evening
MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) - The exterior illumination of the Kremlin will be switched off on Saturday, March 23, for one hour, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., at President Vladimir Putin's decision as part of the international environmental event Earth Hour.
"Vladimir Putin's decision is prompted by traditional significance he attaches to problems of environment and nature protection. In particular, the year of 2013 has been declared the Year of Environmental Protection under the Russian president's decree," the Kremlin press service said.
Earth Hour is an annual environmental event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) aimed at raising people's awareness about the climate change problem. The essence of the action is that people around the world voluntarily switch off non-essential lights for one hour, and exterior illumination of buildings that are known as national symbols of these or those countries is switched off as well.
Earth Hour has been arranged worldwide since 2007. Russia, as well as most other countries, joined the action in 2008. In 2012, 150 countries and about 2 billion people, including over 16 million Russians, took part in Earth Hour.
