VZCZCXRO6231
PP RUEHDBU RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHPB RUEHSL RUEHTM RUEHTRO
DE RUEHMO #3013/01 3490849
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 150849Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5660
INFO RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN PRIORITY 1694
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC PRIORITY
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RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 003013 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS, OES/PCI, OES/OA (GOURLEY) 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO DEPT OF AGRICULTURE 
EPA FOR GARY WAXMONSKY, NEILIMA SENJALIA, JANE METCALFE 
NOAA FOR RENE EPPI, RENEE TATUSKO 
INTERIOR PLEASE PASS TO NPS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2019 
TAGS: PREL SENV EAID KCRM KGHG EFIS RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA SLOW TO MOBILIZE ON ENVIRONMENT WORKING 
GROUP COOPERATION 
 
REF: MOSCOW 454 (NOTAL) 
 
Classified By: EST Counselor Deborah Klepp for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Russian working-level coordinator of 
the Environment Working Group under the Bilateral 
Presidential Commission told us on December 11 that the 
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) would 
likely be interested in working with the United States under 
the Working Group on biodiversity, protected territories, 
chemical and waste management, environmental governance, 
technological issues, and climate change.  However, the 
Ministry's leadership is not focused on the Working Group, 
and the Foreign Ministry has not issued guidance to MNRE on 
the Working Group's functioning or instructions to formulate 
an agenda for cooperation.  He further cautioned that Working 
Group projects should first be discussed and developed on the 
working level.  He criticized how the United States developed 
and presented its recent working-level proposal to jump-start 
cooperation to reduce black carbon emissions in the Arctic. 
Since it was not discussed with Russian experts in advance, 
it was "poorly developed" and stands "no chance" of Russian 
approval.  The MFA's Senior Arctic Official on December 14 
was not much more positive, saying the U.S. delegation is 
welcome to discuss the black carbon proposal at the climate 
talks in Copenhagen, but should not mention Russia as a 
possible partner.  END SUMMARY. 
 
ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY NOT FOCUSED ON WORKING GROUP 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (C) Andrey Peshkov (please protect), Chief of the Section 
on Toxic Waste Management and Nuclear Safety in the 
International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of 
Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE), confidentially 
shared with us on December 11 the state of play on the 
Russian side in launching the Working Group.  Russia's 
working-level coordinator for the Environment Working Group 
of the Bilateral Presidential Commission, Peshkov also serves 
as chairman of the Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP), 
a working group of the Arctic Council, and in that capacity 
has been the chief working-level contact of the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in implementing toxic 
waste cleanup projects in the Arctic.  Peshkov claimed it was 
largely on his initiative that the GOR proposed separating 
environment cooperation from the Energy Working Group, and he 
considers it a victory for U.S.-Russian environment 
cooperation.  Peshkov explained that he is currently the only 
MNRE official focused on the Environment Working Group.  MFA, 
which is charged with managing the Commission process, has 
not yet issued guidance to MNRE on how the Working Groups are 
to function, nor has it ordered MNRE to formulate an agenda 
for cooperation.  Consequently, he said, MNRE has no formal 
list of priority areas of cooperation or projects to propose. 
 
MNRE NOT SERIOUS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶3. (C) Peshkov cited his ministry's leadership as an example 
of the lack of seriousness with which the GOR approaches 
environmental cooperation.  Minister Sergey Trutnev is 
largely focused on natural resource management -- i.e., oil, 
gas and mineral resources.  Deputy Minister Igor Maydanov is 
a former diplomat with little professional background in 
environmental protection; in his former position as the 
MNRE's Director of International Relations, he showed little 
interest in cooperation with the United States.  The newly 
appointed Director of the International Relations Department, 
Nuritdin Inamov, a former MFA colleague of Maydanov, has no 
background in environmental protection.  (Note: Inamov most 
recently served as Deputy Trade Representative at the Russian 
Embassy in Bangkok.  End note.)  Since November 2, when 
Alexander Bedritskiy was removed as director of the Russian 
Hydrometeorological Service (Roshydromet), the country's 
leading scientific agency on climate issues, no new permanent 
director has been appointed, and Peshkov said he is not aware 
of any candidates in the running. 
 
MOSCOW 00003013  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Even long-standing experts within MNRE, who could 
stand to benefit the most from expanded cooperation, have 
expressed trepidation about creating the Working Group at 
all.  The chief of MNRE's Department of Protected 
Territories, Amirkhan Amirkhanov, reportedly told 
representatives of the NGO Wild Salmon Center in the first 
week of December that the Ministry had rejected plans to 
create a separate Environment Working Group.  Amirkhanov 
reportedly feared that the Bilateral Commission process would 
require him to submit his ongoing, and successful, bilateral 
cooperation programs under Area V of the U.S.-Russia 
Environmental Protection Agreement ("Wildlife Without 
Borders") to a bureaucratic approval process and thereby 
disrupt them.  Peshkov told us, however, that Amirkhanov's 
concerns would not affect the Working Group process.  Peshkov 
said he would ask other MNRE officials to consider 
incorporating existing projects into the Working Group. 
 
AREAS OF RUSSIAN INTEREST 
------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Informally, Peshkov said that the Russian side will 
likely be most interested in cooperating on the following 
issues: 
 
- Biodiversity; 
 
- National parks and other specially protected nature 
territories; 
 
- Chemicals and toxic waste management, including mercury and 
persistent organic pollutants (POPs); 
 
- Institutional issues, including environmental regulations, 
monitoring, and enforcement; 
 
- Innovation, use of best available technologies, and cleaner 
production; and 
 
- Climate change. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Peshkov noted that he included climate change in the 
above list only for political reasons.  He dismissed the 
"hysteria" over climate change, saying he believes it is a 
purely natural process with no significant anthropogenic 
component.  (Note: This is the prevailing view of most of our 
Russian counterparts, including in the Russian Academy of 
Sciences.  End note.) 
 
¶7. (SBU) Peshkov recommended that, in order to develop a 
coherent and constructive agenda for the Working Group, 
groups of leading experts from each side must meet to discuss 
areas that are of high priority for both sides, and those in 
which resources will allow for progress.  As he understands 
it, the Russian government views the Bilateral Presidential 
Commission as a new type of cooperation, in which Russia will 
be an equal partner in all respects, including financing. 
Russia will not agree to a project, Peshkov said, unless it 
is prepared to pay its own fair share of the cost of 
implementation. 
 
MNRE NOT ENVISAGING INTERAGENCY COOPERATION IN EWG 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Several areas of potential environment cooperation 
lie outside MNRE's ambit.  In the area of forestry, Peshkov 
reminded us, only specially protected forest territories and 
hunting in forests fall under MNRE's authority.  Other forest 
issues remain under the management of the Ministry of 
Agriculture and its Federal Forestry Service.  (Note: Peshkov 
did not indicate that forestry issues would return in the 
beginning of 2010 to MNRE, as he expected in July 2009.  End 
note.)  Likewise, he said, protection of fisheries falls 
under the Federal Fisheries Service, which is unconnected 
with MNRE.  Peshkov said that, as yet, he has no intention of 
reaching out beyond MNRE for interagency cooperation under 
 
MOSCOW 00003013  003 OF 003 
 
 
the Environment Working Group; MNRE has no control over other 
agencies' funding and no authority to direct their programs 
or personnel, and higher authorities have shown no 
inclination to encourage such cooperation.  Rather, he said, 
MNRE plans to implement cooperation programs exclusively 
through agencies under its administrative purview.  (Note: 
MNRE-affiliated agencies include the weather and climate 
agency Roshydromet, as well as environmental regulatory 
agency Rosprirodnadzor.  End note.) 
 
U.S. BLACK CARBON INITIATIVE: OUTLOOK NOT GOOD 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶9. (C) Peshkov harshly criticized the manner in which the 
United States approached Russia in early December with a $3-5 
million proposal to cooperate on initiatives to reduce black 
carbon emissions in the Arctic.  Peshkov said that the U.S. 
proposal, which came from the State Department directly to 
the GOR Senior Arctic Official at MFA, had not been discussed 
with MNRE in advance.  The proposal, in his opinion, was 
badly prepared and apparently written without any expert 
consultation.  Peshkov said there is "zero chance" of Russian 
support for the proposal, as such a project would have 
required months of serious joint discussion and development. 
When we reminded him that the April Arctic Council 
ministerial launched the black carbon task force, he mused, 
"Maybe if we had started in April..."  Ambassador-at-Large 
Anton Vasiliev, Russia's Senior Arctic Official, was not much 
more encouraging; on December 6 he told us that the black 
carbon initiative came as a bit of a shock to Russian 
officials.  On December 14, Vasiliev told us that U.S. 
delegates are welcome to announce the black carbon initiative 
at the Copenhagen climate summit, but should not mention 
Russia as a potential partner in any such announcement. 
Vasiliev did tell the U.S. Senior Arctic Official that Russia 
would be able to support the initiative if it is brought into 
the Arctic Council; however, on December 14 he told us that 
he did not envision Arctic Council projects being 
incorporated into the Bilateral Commission. 
 
COMMENT: U.S. MUST TAKE THE INITIATIVE 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (C) Unfortunately, the USG no longer has strong 
high-level ties with today's environmental policymakers in 
Russia.  Peshkov holds strong -- and sometimes strongly 
heterodox -- views on environment issues, but he is among our 
most senior regular contacts within MNRE.  His assessment, 
combined with the second-hand report of Amirkhanov's 
statement, suggests that MNRE is waiting for further 
instruction from MFA before launching the Environment Working 
Group.  MFA interlocutors have sarcastically called the 
Ministry a "black hole," joking that it is easier to get 
information from Chukotka, the most distant province from 
Moscow, than from MNRE.  So we suggest that EUR DAS Dan 
Russell request that Ambassador-at-Large Eduard Malayan, 
Russia's Presidential Commission coordinator, provide MNRE 
with clear instructions to get moving.  But we also would 
like to provide the U.S. side's Environment Working Group 
one-pager to MNRE as soon as possible.  After the Working 
Group co-chairs agree on the list of priority areas of 
cooperation, we endorse Peshkov's suggestion to convene 
leading experts from both the U.S. and Russian sides in those 
topic areas to develop specific program proposals in which 
resources are available. 
Beyrle