How the Hunting Lobby Shapes the Law: A Chronicle of Trophy Hunting Legalization in Russia (2019–2025)

Since around 2019, our country has seen aggressive promotion of the paid wildlife killing industry — recreational trophy hunting. This coincided with the decline of the hunting market in poor African countries, where few animals remain. In reality, most animals there are found only in protected areas (reserves), or are bred for further killing on game farms! Thus, the trophy hunting market began to shrink, as in addition to the lack of targets, dangerous diseases and unstable socio-political conditions have spread.

The market for recreational killing began to shift. Wealthy people from all over the world are willing to pay thousands of dollars for trophy hunting trips! Many tours cost tens of thousands of dollars. At the same time, the number of people willing to shoot has not decreased.

But where to go, if almost all animals have been wiped out on the African continent?

At this moment, unfortunately, Russian regions took a course toward developing the paid wildlife killing industry. They began actively attracting the flow of "trophy hunters" by offering to kill animals in our Russian Taiga.

In response, African countries began to legalize the killing of animals even in reserves under the guise of humanitarian needs, just to retain the flow of hunters! I previously wrote a separate piece about how some countries declared a severe shortage of food and water, after which they issued permits to destroy thousands of animals in reserves. Later it was revealed that local officials were simply selling trophy hunting licenses to wealthy individuals from around the world, using humanitarian concerns as a cover to allow hunters into previously protected areas.

A massive flow of money was directed to Russia, and from 2019 to the present day, the regions of our country have confidently held the lead in selling off "wildlife assets" for sport killing. Trophy hunters come to us from all over the world to kill animals for fun!

Today in this article, I want to present a brief chronology of the laws that were adopted specifically from 2019 to 2025 as part of the paid killing industry. I believe this is very important for understanding the scale of interest around recreational hunting!

July 24, 2019 — The State Duma passed a law allowing hunting with bows and crossbows, equating these types to hunting projectile weapons (previously, bows and crossbows could only be used for sports). This was done to allow hunters to choose a more "refined" method of killing animals in the wild. The initiators of the bill noted that legalizing bows would positively impact the development of the hunting industry in Russia.

February 11, 2020 — The State Duma approved a law on enclosure hunting (in semi-wild and artificially created conditions) in the third reading. The law legalizes the shooting of animals bred in fenced enclosures, which was previously absent from legislation. This is a practice common in African countries: when wild animal numbers dropped drastically, huge forest areas began to be leased, which nominally became "enclosures." Enclosure hunting is carried out under a special permit (a contract with a hunting estate), and such animals are not subject to general limits and quotas on harvest — meaning animals can be killed year-round without restrictions or state involvement. All relations are conducted between the private estate (the land lessee) and those wishing to shoot animals.

I’ve seen how this is done in African countries: animals lack food even in protected reserve areas. People lease land on the border of reserves and begin placing bait on their rented plots, after which hungry animals come to them! Legally, these animals are considered private property and can be killed without limits or quotas.

This is how African countries circumvent all legislative restrictions.

Therefore, of course, when such a law was passed in Russia, it caused an unprecedented public outcry. But nothing changed! The law remains in effect, and enclosure hunting is fully legal.

July 24, 2020 — The Ministry of Natural Resources issued Order No. 477 with updated Hunting Rules, which, in particular, extended the brown bear hunting season until December 31 (from August 1 to December 31, instead of ending in the fall). This legalized WINTER bear hunting until the end of the calendar year, when they are ALREADY HIBERNATING. Female bears go to sleep with their older cubs, and many are pregnant and will give birth in the den in the middle of winter. Naturally, it’s impossible to tell if there are cubs in the den — until after the killing is done.

We are currently trying to repeal this order from the Ministry of Natural Resources, while the Ministry itself is actively trying to legalize bear killing throughout the entire winter until spring. Moreover, even the Supreme Court in 2024 refused to annul this provision, siding with the Ministry.

January 1, 2021 — Amendments to the "Law on Hunting" and new Hunting Rules came into force, easing certain conditions for hunters. In particular, hunters were once again allowed to test-fire (sight-in) their weapons directly in hunting grounds during the season (previously only allowed at specialized shooting ranges). The main condition was limiting this to a safe distance — not closer than 200 (only!!) meters from residential buildings. Thus, officials simplified preparation for hunting and removed unnecessary restrictions!

January 27, 2022 — The Ministry of Natural Resources issued Order No. 49 approving new standards for the allowable withdrawal of game resources. The document set limits for the harvesting of animals and birds for the coming years (from September 1, 2022, for 6 years). These standards were revised in light of the expanding hunting industry: Roslesinforg confirmed that the recreational hunting industry is growing rapidly! It was announced that by 2022, nearly 36 million hectares of forest (one-third of all accessible forest lands in the country) had already been successfully transferred TO PRIVATE HANDS FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF SPORT HUNTING.

Roslesinforg also reported that hunting tourism has been showing aggressive growth since 2020 — about 12% annually, with unprecedented speed. This increase in demand for animal killing in the Russian Taiga — about 120% over just 10 years!

Therefore, the Ministry introduced new harvest standards via Order No. 49 to meet growing demand and support the trophy hunting industry.

July 14, 2022 — A law was signed allowing hunting weapons to be rented (temporarily used) for hunting purposes. The changes were initiated to promote hunting tourism and were previously adopted by the State Duma (June 30, 2022). The new law allowed hunting land users (hunting estates, etc.) to lend their weapons and ammunition to others during hunting — including both Russian and foreign hunters.

The main purpose of the bill was to allow foreign trophy hunters to rent weapons when they come to our country to kill wild animals! Foreign hunters can be provided with weapons for up to 90 days under contract with a hunting estate (with a valid hunting license and Rosgvardiya permission to carry weapons). These measures greatly simplified the participation of foreign tourists in hunting, allowing them to rent weapons locally instead of importing their own. The law came into force on July 15, 2023.

May 24, 2024 — The Ministry of Natural Resources again attempted to adopt a law allowing bear killing throughout the entire winter while they hibernate in dens. The main "attraction" of Russian hunting for foreign trophy seekers is precisely the killing of the "Master of the Russian Taiga in his den." Fortunately, thanks to great public effort, this madness was stopped. We all fought as best we could! As of now, the law is not adopted, but bear hunting until the end of the calendar year is still allowed. I’m sure the Ministry will try again to push through year-round killing soon.

AND THAT’S NOT ALL

I’ve listed only a few key legislative initiatives. At the same time, many other legislative efforts — from both federal agencies and regional authorities — were adopted to expand the capabilities of the paid killing industry.

Many Russian regions have intensified efforts to attract hunting tourists: for example, significant portions of accessible lands were transferred to private use for organized hunting, triggering a kind of competition between regions for the influx of foreign trophy hunters. Right now, there is a race to see who can attract more foreigners to kill animals in our Russian Taiga.

Various measures are being developed to simplify procedures for foreign trophy hunters, including the creation of tour routes, mobile apps, and special regional programs.

And right now, the Ministry of Natural Resources is trying to allow, "in exceptional cases," the killing of animals listed in the Red Book and is actively increasing the number of issued quotas for the shooting of various wild species.

This sphere — and I am not wrong in calling it the paid killing industry (because that’s what it is) — will continue to expand in the coming years. In many ways, we are beginning to replace the African market, where a bloody massacre took place for decades and animals were exterminated on a massive scale just for trophies! One need only recall the glorified "achievement" every white sahib aims for — to "kill the Big Five": lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard.

In our country, I know that among trophy hunters there is already an informal "Russian trophy five," which includes: bear, moose, lynx, wolf, and forest or wild reindeer. Wealthy foreign trophy hunters are also actively requesting the killing of bison and Amur tigers — both of which are listed in the Red Book as endangered species! I believe that in the future, under the guise of "selective control," even the rarest animals will be shot in enclosure hunting estates to satisfy wealthy clients.

Is this not the very reason they're already proposing to "kill in exceptional cases" animals listed in the Red Book? Formally not for hunting, but the choice of which animal to kill will be left to local officials, and the permit to carry out the killing could well be issued to wealthy trophy hunters — for a certain fee.

That’s the situation in our long-suffering Russian Taiga. And in conclusion, I’d like to note once again that, according to 2024 scientific data, over the past 50 years, humans have completely wiped out about 73% of all animals on the planet.

© PAVEL PASHKOV