In May of this year, Russian President Putin abolished the country s Federal Forest Service and State Committee on Environmental Protection. In so doing, Putin placed the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, which has a tradition of aggressive resource exploitation, in charge of the abolished agencies environmental protection functions. With this move, Russia s system of independent government environmental enforcement was effectively halted. In July, over 60 Russian environmental leaders, including former environmental advisor to Boris Yeltzin, Alexei Yablokov, sent a letter of protest over the situation to World Bank President James Wolfensohn. Yet, the World Bank supports the abolishment of the agencies, and claims it is making these projects implementation conditional on the Russian government restoring these agencies functions its satisfaction.
Environmentalists are skeptical.
Wolfensohn pledged to withhold the loan and guarantees until adequate reforms are in place. Yet the Bank has an internal culture of approval that creates pressure for it to cave in weak reforms in the interest of bureaucratic expediency. Four months after the agency abolishments, there is ample evidence that the reform effort is damaging the country s already compromised ability to protect the environment. There have been numerous staff cuts. Some employees of the agency have changed their stand on issues in order to retain their jobs in the Ministry of Natural Resources.