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Federal authorities are unable, or unwilling, to stop it.
But some Russians bear public witness to what's happening to their forests. One is Anatoly Lebedev, an environmental activist with his own TV show on a local network. He believes organized crime and corruption are behind the alarming increase in illegal logging. Authorities here have confiscated a truckload of a rare pine prized for furniture making, cut illegally from a protected reserve. But it's unlikely the lawbreakers will be punished, according to Lebedev.