Officials have duplicated the draft law on the clear-cutting of protected forests!

I have not seen such a dismissive attitude toward the opinion of Russian civil society for a very long time. It is outright mockery in an attempt to push through self-serving interests by any means! Comrades, we need everyone’s help to protect the mountain forests that officials want to brazenly clear-cut all over the country in order to “develop” hundreds of billions of rubles.

So then.

The situation is absurdly comical, yet in reality there’s nothing funny about it. This is not the despair of lobbyists destroying forests, but sheer arrogance!

For half a year, we have been holding back the dangerous draft law No. 145734, by which the Ministry of Economic Development attempted to legalize the clear-cutting of protected forests to build resorts all over the country! Right from the outset of the draft law’s adoption, they announced an “investment” figure of at least 300 billion rubles, involving the construction of more than 260 resort facilities.

For many months, we have been defending the RIGHT of PROTECTED FORESTS to exist, while the officials, in their draft law, have missed every possible deadline for public discussion, violated legislative initiative rules, and should have (and were obliged to!) closed the draft long ago.

But they decided to simply “wait it out” by exhausting methods, hoping society would forget about the problem, that people would get tired of this law! We have not given up; we have fought, and we also received information from allies in the Government that officials were planning to push the draft law through in the spring session of the State Duma.

Therefore, in February 2025, we took an active position to prevent this.

It’s really simple: there are protected forests (first category!!) that must not be touched under any circumstances! And there are also mountain ecosystems that today serve as focal points for the self-restoration of biological systems and as refuges for wildlife. We must preserve these refuges by any means, expand them, and by no means destroy them completely.

NOW PAY ATTENTION!

The officials did not withdraw the old draft law from consideration, so we would continue to block that initiative. Diverting attention, on March 6, 2025, they quietly launched a NEW DRAFT LAW, simply duplicating the old one! That is, they created yet another copy of the draft law and are now trying to pass it under a different number and with slightly modified wording.

Can you imagine? Not only did they violate the rules for publishing the old draft law, but also, for their own “vested” interests, they are now trying to duplicate it. What will they do next? Make ten or a hundred duplicates to sow confusion and pass at least some sort of law? Money has so blinded them that they can’t be stopped?

TIME TO ACT

The old draft law No. 145734 still has not been withdrawn from consideration. We will continue to oppose it through a separate public initiative!

And now there is a new draft law under No. 155253. Society must show its strength and come out sharply and categorically against this law! But if there is no decisive response, we will not be able to protect the mountain forests, the refuges of wildlife.

Comrades! We need your help. We and our allies in the Government will take every measure to have the draft law withdrawn from consideration—both the old one and the new one. But we definitely can’t do it without you. The request must come from the grassroots!

Please follow the instructions and call on others to help:

1. Open the draft law, study the information about it! Log in on the State Initiatives website (it can be done via Gosuslugi).

   
   

   Изучить законопроект

   
   

   File Текст законопроекта (docx) 33 КБ

   
   

   File Пояснительная записка (docx) 37 КБ

   
   

2. Vote against the draft law; this is the visible part of the public demand! We stand against the reckless destruction of wildlife refuges.

   

   
   

3. Click on “Ваши предложения” (“Your Proposals”) and submit a complaint about the draft law!

   

   
   
4. You can also click on all the forms where there are contacts for responsible persons (usually email addresses), and send your complaints there as well! Demand that the draft law be withdrawn from consideration.

ИНИЦИАТИВА

We have also launched a public initiative with a public complaint to the Government of the Russian Federation regarding the inadmissibility of passing this draft law. Visit the initiative, sign it, and send your complaint to the listed contacts on your own behalf! The more people participate, the sooner we will put an end to this madness.

Общественная инициатива

Meanwhile, we will get in touch with all our allies in the authorities and seek to have the draft law withdrawn “from within the system”! We will also prepare a request demanding to check the legality of duplicating draft laws, launch public outreach on social networks, and do everything we can to involve as many people as possible in our cause.

It is extremely important that you support our work! Without you, we cannot manage. You yourselves see the madness unfolding: it is simply beyond comprehension. Money has completely blinded the officials!

What other 300 billion rubles to destroy mountain refuges, when the world is experiencing a mass extinction of species? How is it even possible to lobby for such a thing with this level of audacity?

Let’s fight!

© PAVEL PASHKOV