Accounts blocked, offices closed – the activities of the environmentalists of the WWF in Russia have been virtually banned. The activists threatened “security in the economic sphere,” said the Attorney General’s Office.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has been active in Russia for more than three decades. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has now classified the activities of the environmental protection organization as undesirable. The reason given was that the activities of the WWF in Russia were a “threat to security in the economic sphere”.
An example given is that the WWF wants to prevent industrial development in the Arctic. In March, the NGO had already been classified as a foreign agent, which had made their work considerably more difficult. The WWF had protested against it. Environmental projects could not be put on hold because that could undo the success of previous decades, a statement said at the time.
Working for endangered species
Now the work of environmentalists in Russia has finally been made impossible. Accounts are blocked, buying or renting real estate is prohibited. All offices must be closed. No more members may be recruited, no information material distributed and certainly no protest actions may be carried out. In May, prosecutors banned Greenpeace’s work in Russia.
WWF has worked in Russia to protect and preserve the habitats of endangered animal species. These include Amur tigers, polar bears, snow leopards and many other species. According to WWF Russia, the main goal is to preserve biodiversity on earth.
Putin posed as an animal rights activist
According to its own information, the decades-long work of the WWF in Russia was supported by 1.5 million people. In the past, Russian President Putin liked to pose as an animal rights activist. When planning the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, there was even a short phase of cooperation: the WWF was supposed to act in an advisory capacity, but quickly withdrew because all suggestions had been ignored, it was said.