Last chance: help stop the destruction of protected MOUNTAIN FORESTS!

If we do not stop the insane bill on the CLEAR-CUTTING OF PROTECTED-CATEGORY FORESTS in the country’s mountain ecosystems now, there will be no other opportunity. We literally have one last chance to oppose the plans to destroy the mountain refuges of wildlife: bill  №155253 has already been submitted for consideration by the Government of the Russian Federation.

A brief overview for everyone who still does not know what is happening:

• Since the summer of 2024 officials from the Ministry of Economic Development have been trying to push through a bill that legalises clear-cutting of protected-category mountain forests
• With incredible effort from society we managed to stop the first version of the project
• After that the officials duplicated the project under another number and tried to pass it quickly
• We discovered it and also spoke out against it.
• On the last day of the public discussion, “suddenly” thousands of votes allegedly supporting the destruction of our country’s mountain forests began to appear on the project page! Within a day almost five thousand “for” votes appeared, indicating possible technical manipulation

Next, the officials spoke in the Federation Council, secured support, and now the project has been sent for consideration by the Government of the Russian Federation. They want to adopt the bill for the sake of building tourist clusters (resorts) across the country: for this they will cut down forests in wildlife refuges, which are points of self-restoration of biological systems and the only places where animals and plants can hide from humans.

The main interest is state funding; we are talking about hundreds of billions of rubles. Therefore, influential circles have formed around such huge money, trying to secure the development of our country’s mountain forests. They publicly announced that interests at the initial stage of adopting the project amount to more than 300 billion rubles through the construction of more than 260 resort facilities.

LAST CHANCE!

Our forces are clearly unequal. But we are obliged to try to stop this madness, because it concerns our Motherland and future generations. Let us act.

We have contacted our allies inside the government and state agencies. Many strongly support our position and will try to convey it to key decision-makers! But public resonance is necessary—if there is no visible resonance, nothing can be achieved. Therefore, this is LITERALLY the last chance to try to influence the madness.

So. Most likely the bill will go through two people in the Government who will make further decisions and sign the necessary papers.

• Dmitry Yuryevich Grigorenko, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation — Chief of the Government Staff, Chair of the Government Commission on Legislative Activities (GCLA)

  
  
• Mikhail Vladimirovich Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation

We have prepared official requests for them; we will send them ourselves, and it is also necessary that as many people as possible additionally send appeals through the official Government website.

Download the documents:

File Grigorenko D.Yu. 111 КБ

File Mishustin M.V. 111 КБ

Send them one by one through the reception office:

Government Reception Office

In the “Text of the appeal” field, you can write something like:

To the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation —

Chief of the Government Staff,

Chair of the Government Commission on Legislative Activities

D. Yu. Grigorenko

(regarding bill № 155253)

I request that this appeal be forwarded to Dmitry Yuryevich Grigorenko concerning the need to reject the bill that legalises clear-cutting of protected-category forests in the mountain ecosystems of our country. I attach detailed information in the PDF letter.

You will need to confirm the submission via e-mail (if the letter has not arrived, check the SPAM folder).

In addition, you can send letters via Gosuslugi under your own name.

1.  Log in to gosuslugi.ru.
2. In the top search bar enter “Message to the Government of the Russian Federation” or service ID 10094 — open the service card.
3. Click “Get the service”. A form will open whose structure matches the Government portal screenshot.

4. Fill in:

   • Event region — “Russian Federation”/“Moscow”.

   • Appeal topic — “Proposal / statement” (no difference for Federal Law 59-FZ).

   • Brief description — “Regarding bill № 155253”.

   • Appeal text — insert the entire prepared text with the address “header”.

5. Attach files (the PDF letters).
6. Confirm submission by clicking “Submit message”.
7. The system will create an application; its status can be tracked through the “My appeals” section in your Gosuslugi personal account (a push notification will be sent automatically).

NEXT STEPS

After that, it is extremely important to spread the information on social media! If you post on VKontakte, tag the Government community — @gov

You can open our Public Initiative; all the information for distribution is there: just copy the post and send it everywhere, invite your friends and relatives to take part.

Public Initiative

We are keeping in touch with allies in the authorities and will try to achieve at least a suspension of the bill’s consideration. But the chances are very small!

If we do not stop this madness, within the next ten years the mountain ecosystems—wildlife refuges—will simply be torn to shreds. The entire existing system of protected areas in the country is in danger! 

© PAVEL PASHKOV