Sergey Ivanov criticized the activities of the Russian branch of WWF

Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on environmental protection, ecology and transport Sergey Ivanov criticized the activities of the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
"We have long come to the conclusion based on a lot of facts that the Russian branch of WWF is not actually engaged in any protection of nature and is not very interested in it, but is primarily interested in collecting money, self–promotion and bribing journalists," Ivanov said in an interview on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Earlier Sergei Ivanov and the Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuichenko criticized the Russian branch of the fund, which stated that there was allegedly insufficient funding for programs for the conservation of rare animals.
In this regard Ivanov expressed full conviction that Russia is capable of solving issues of nature protection "completely independently, without any foreign assistance and advice."
According to the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation, the activities of WWF councils are often politicized.
"Here is the latest example: Chukotka officially publicly severed all relations, any contacts with WWF, because WWF, under the pretext of protecting walruses, tried to restrict navigation along the Northern Sea Route. This is already a direct intervention in politics, it has nothing to do with the environment," the official said.
Ivanov drew attention to the fact that in recent years "a powerful internal environmental movement has appeared in Russia."
"I have repeatedly observed and even worked together with young people who clean the banks of rivers, seas, sorry, polluted territories, clean up garbage, and thank them very much for this," said the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation. 

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished