WWF designated undesirable in Russia
MOSCOW. June 21 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has made a decision to designate the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) undesirable in Russia.
"Based on the results of an inspection, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has made a decision to designate the activities of the international non-governmental organization World Wide Fund for Nature (World Wildlife Fund, WWF, headquartered in Switzerland) undesirable in the Russian Federation," it said on Wednesday.
The WWF is included in the list of foreign agents in Russia.
The Prosecutor General's Office believes that the WWF's environmental and eco-educational activities "are used by the WWF as cover for implementing projects which create threats to the security of the economic sector."
"For instance, under the pretext of protecting the environment, the WWF conducts activities aimed at hindering the implementation of the country's policy for the industrial development of the Arctic and natural resources in subarctic areas, and [aimed at] developing and legitimizing restrictions capable of serving as the basis for moving the Northern Sea Route towards the exclusive economic zone of the United States," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
The WWF's initiatives "target major enterprises operating in the energy and oil and gas sectors and which are developing deposits of valuable minerals and precious metals," it said.
"With regard to [certain] enterprises, some of which are implementing national programs, the WWF has formed a network of environmental non-profits under its control in order to gather information about the environmental situation in Russia's regions in light of major industrial complexes' operations, and to prepare 'independent', biased evaluations aimed at holding Russia's economic development back," it said.
The fund has created a rating of the level of environmental responsibility shown by Russian companies in various sectors, as well as industry rankings on the openness of environmental information, in particular in the oil and gas, power generation, mining, and metals industries, the Prosecutor General's Office said. "At the same time, creating the aforementioned ratings is done in a biased way, based on subjective standards and criteria developed by the WWF, which single-handedly determines what enterprises are worthy of 'green' status," it said.
In addition, the WWF has provided financial and methodological support to Russian non-governmental organizations included in the register of foreign agents, namely the Friends of the Baltic, Sakhalin Environmental Watch, and others, it said.