Russia Needs Environmental Security Strategy – Putin

MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) – President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia should draft and adopt an environmental protection strategy as soon as possible.

Putin warned that if environmental policies remain the way they are, Russians will eventually be “left with nothing” despite the country’s seemingly huge territory and vast natural resources.

The president told a Russian Security Council session devoted to environmental problems that the proposed strategy should “contain evaluations of external and internal threats [to the environment] as well as threshold parameters for protection.”

Putin said that Russia also lacked a comprehensive system for businesses to pay compensation for the use of natural resources.

But he noted that such a system would “create an additional burden for businesses.” He said lawmakers should be cautious to “not overload the economy with such demands.”