VZCZCXRO4644
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHMO #2690/01 3031227
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301227Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5233
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA WASHDC
RHFJBRQ/NSF POLAR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 002690 
 
STATE FOR EUR/RUS, EUR/ACE, INL/AAE, OES/PCI, EUR/PGI, L/CA 
DOJ FOR OPDAT/NEWCOMBE AND ALEXANDRE 
DOJ ALSO FOR ENRD/MITCHELL AND WEBB 
AIDAC STATE FOR USAID/E&E 
INTERIOR FOR KIM MAGRAW 
INTERIOR PLEASE PASS TO NPS, FWS, AND USGS 
FWS FOR STEVE KOHL, JANET HOHN, GEOFF HASKETT 
NPS FOR SUE MASICA 
NOAA FOR RENEE TATUSKO 
OSTP FOR JOAN ROLF 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: SENV KCRM KJUS PGOV PHUM PREL CH RS
 
SUBJECT: U.S. EXPLORES ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA 
 
REFS: A. MOSCOW 2366, B. Vladivostok 5 
 
MOSCOW 00002690  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Two conferences organized the week of October 2 
in Vladivostok and Moscow highlighted both the importance of and 
challenges to increasing U.S.-Russian cooperation on environmental 
crimes.  A 2007 prosecution of an Amcit for illegal hunting in 
Kamchatka failed in part because of DOJ's inability to obtain needed 
expert testimony from Russia refuting the defendant's claims that he 
was licensed to hunt the animals in question.  Environmental 
enforcement in Russia has taken on even greater significance for the 
U.S. as a result of 2008 amendments to the Lacey Act which 
criminalized, among other things, the importation, sale and 
distribution of plants and timber obtained in violation of foreign 
law.  Given the extent of illegal timber harvesting in the Russian 
Far East, the new legislation presents an opportunity for the U.S. 
to contribute to the protection of Russia's forests, which have been 
depleted by illegal logging.  However, successful prosecutions will 
require proving that the initial harvesting was illegal under 
Russian law, which will, in turn, require much more effective 
U.S.-Russian cooperation in the area of environmental enforcement. 
The conferences left the clear impression that Russia's enforcement 
program is plagued by staggering corruption and inefficiency.  A 
bright spot, though, was the positive experience of some Russian 
NGOs in cooperating with law enforcement.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) During the week of October 20, Post's Law Enforcement Section 
(LES), together with the World Wildlife Fund Russia (WWF) and the 
Vladivostok Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TRACC), 
organized a conference in Vladivostok on environmental crime and 
enforcement.  The conference was attended by approximately 60 
Russian participants, including law enforcement and government 
officials, NGO activists, academic experts and researchers and 
private lawyers.  U.S. participants included two prosecutors from 
DOJ's Environmental Crimes Section, a Special Agent from the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service, an expert from the U.S. Forest Service, 
Vladivostok CG and Poleconoff, and both Embassy Resident Legal 
Advisors.  This was followed by a session in the Public Chamber in 
Moscow attended by representatives of various Russian NGOs and two 
representatives from the General Prosecutor's Office. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Few Prosecutions Thanks to the "Ecomafia" at Work 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3. (SBU) According to almost all the Russian experts at the 
Vladivostok conference, Russian environmental enforcement is 
hopelessly corrupt, and the future for Russia's forests and 
endangered species bleak.  According to research presented by 
Gennady Zherebkin, a former prosecutor now with WWF, between 2000 
and 2008 Russian law enforcement opened 5,618 criminal prosecutions 
against a total of 6,070 people for environmental violations. 
(Note: Illegal logging cases accounted for 4431, or 79 percent, of 
these.  Illegal fishing accounted for 15 percent, while illegal 
hunting accounted for another 3 percent.  End Note.)  While these 
numbers may appear significant, according to Zherebkin, the majority 
of the cases (62 percent) were terminated before trial, an 
astonishing figure given that opening a criminal case under Russian 
law requires substantial evidence and that investigators can suffer 
adverse consequences for failing to successfully complete a case 
once opened. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Moreover, according to Zherebkin and others, many of the 
cases that were sent to court were dismissed in court or resulted in 
minor sentences.  For example, Zherebkin mentioned one case of 
illegal whaling dismissed by the judge on the grounds that the crime 
was "insignificant" and said that such occurrences were common. 
 
MOSCOW 00002690  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Another participant told us about a case involving a corrupt 
government inspector who was convicted and then sentenced to 
corrective labor at his job, an absurd result amounting to no 
sentence.  There seems to be little doubt that such poor enforcement 
is the result of organized crime and corruption.  As Professor 
Vitaliy Nomokonov, the head of the Vladivostok TRACC, told us, the 
high percentage of terminated cases shows "the mafia at work." 
Another expert from TRACC, Oleg Khrenkov, surveyed 100 environmental 
experts from the Russian Far East and found that 54 percent 
considered corruption to be the main reason for poor environmental 
enforcement in the Russian Far East. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Privately, Russian experts provided us with numerous 
examples illustrating these conclusions.  Several told us of honest 
environmental inspectors being threatened, killed, and having their 
houses burned down for pursuing cases.  Others told us of 
sophisticated counter-surveillance techniques used by criminals 
including employing lookouts to watch for timber inspectors and warn 
loggers so that they disperse ahead of the inspections.  One told us 
about how the fishing mafia uses GPS blocking systems to ensure that 
vessels involved in illegal fishing cannot be tracked by 
investigators.  Several told us that the illegal traffic in plants 
and wildlife is supported by high government officials, and two 
mentioned that the son of a Presidential Representative is one of 
those protecting the trade.  Others said that the corruption is so 
widespread that it is impossible to combat.  For example, one 
participant told us about a local official who, when informed that 
his inspectors were taking bribes from illegal loggers, addressed 
the problem by forbidding the inspectors from having any contact 
with the loggers and to simply let them pass without any 
inspection. 
 
¶6. (SBU) In addition to corruption, the conference highlighted other 
enforcement problems.  For example, 71 percent of the experts 
surveyed by Khrenkov identified "insufficient legal and 
material-technical support" as the main cause of poor environmental 
enforcement.  Specific problems include: the lack of an adequate log 
tracking system, making it impossible for inspectors to determine 
whether timber has come from a protected or an unprotected area; 
overlapping and conflicting responsibilities of different 
enforcement agencies; constant administrative reorganizations, 
resulting in a lack of institutional knowledge; a collective "brain 
drain"; poorly drafted and inadequate regulations; low salaries for 
enforcement officials; and lack of equipment and training for law 
enforcement agencies. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
NGO Cooperation with Law Enforcement A Bright Spot 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶7. (SBU) However, there were some bright spots.  For example, 
several NGO representatives said that they had been able to work 
successfully with some law enforcement officials.  Zherebkin said 
that when WWF investigators compiled evidence of illegal logging and 
hunting, presented it to law enforcement officials, and followed the 
cases through the legal system, they had been able to ensure 
successful prosecutions.  Another WWF official told us of successful 
training programs conducted by WWF for fishing and hunting 
inspectors, though he noted that the forest inspectors are too 
corrupt and will not even attend joint conferences without being 
bribed to do so. 
 
------------------------- 
Public Chamber Roundtable 
------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Vladivostok program was followed by a roundtable at the 
Public Chamber on October 23 attended by a variety of Russian 
experts, NGO representatives, and two representatives of the General 
 
MOSCOW 00002690  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
Procuracy.  The picture that emerged was largely similar to that 
presented in Vladivostok.  Russia Greenpeace director Ivan Blokov 
said that the logging enforcement situation is even worse than 
indicated by Zherebkin's statistics and pointed out that virtually 
all timber exports are technically illegal absent regional forest 
plans and regulations, which can be adopted only after appropriate 
environmental impact studies, which have not been conducted in most 
relevant regions.  U.S. experts then presented a series of specific 
recommendations, including developing environmental whistleblower 
statutes and an environmental crimes hotline and improving legal 
mechanisms for bringing civil actions independent of criminal cases. 
 These were received with great interest and have already been 
distributed to appropriate Russian contacts. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Comment: While the general picture is bleak, the newly 
formed Bilateral Presidential Commission's Environmental Working 
Group and the Lacey Act amendments provide an opportunity to draw 
increased international attention to environmental protection in 
Russia.  Moreover, the positive experience of WWF suggests that U.S. 
support for such programs is worthwhile and should be continued. 
Continued support for USAID-funded U.S. Forest Service programs 
focused on developing a log tracking system is essential if Russia 
is to be a partner in Lacey Act enforcement.  Given that timber 
harvested illegally in the Russian Far East typically passes through 
China on its way to the U.S., effective Lacey Act enforcement will 
require close operational cooperation between U.S., Russian and 
Chinese law enforcement.  One possible next step is to explore the 
possibility of forming a trilateral law enforcement working group. 
Given the extent of law enforcement corruption, supporting the 
efforts of private attorneys to bring environmental suits also 
appears worthwhile, and Post will explore the possibility of a 
seminar on private environmental litigation. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment, continued: A third option is to explore further 
diplomatic efforts to follow up on the St. Petersburg Ministerial 
Declaration made during the 2005 Europe and North Asia Forest Law 
Enforcement and Governance conference (ENA FLEG), in which 44 
governments, including Russia and the United States, expressed their 
intent to take action to improve forest governance and combat 
illegal logging and associated forest crimes.  The Declaration 
included an Indicative List of Actions to implement the declaration 
and called for a second Ministerial within five years to assess 
progress and decide on further actions.  The Indicative List 
includes national-level actions, including on policy framework, 
legislation systems, institutions, sustainable forest management, 
and rural development, as well as international initiatives, such as 
forest-related policies, trade and customs, and collaborative 
implementation. 
 
¶11. (U) Post expresses its gratitude to Consulate General 
Vladivostok, DOJ/ECS, USFWS, and USFS for their outstanding 
participation in this program.  Vladivostok CG Tom Armbruster 
cleared this cable. 
 
BEYRLE