Green groups and scientists drafted a letter of protest that was delivered to Putin May 23. Historically, the Natural Resources Department's primary function has been to oversee Russia's oil and gas development, logging and mining. Because money is so hard to come by in Russia, they are ready to use natural resources in any way they can. This is irresponsible. Ten years after the accident at Chernobyl, contaminated trucks and helicopters remain discarded in Rassohka, the biggest storage point.
Environmentalists claim the environment has always been on the back burner in Russia.
Putin's government signals a further decline in Russia's interest in environmental matters. Moffet said it is likely that Russia will commit fewer resources to the environment on an international level as well. He thinks Russia has bigger problems than the environment. Puttin sees the environmental protection as a means of foreign intrusion into Russian affairs. When Putin headed Russia's federal security service, he directed the persecution of Alexander Nikitin, who was charged with espionage for exposing the unsafe storage of nuclear waste by the Russian navy to an environmental group in Norway.