Across the country, brigades are being formed to exterminate wolves: the chronicle of ecocide in the winter of 2025.

I believe that everything happening around wolves today has not only turned into a catastrophe but also into sheer nonsense mixed with systemic lies. When I was writing my book in defense of wolves, “The Right to Life,” I myself did not understand the problem very well. However, relying on scientific data, research, and studying how the issue develops in different countries around the world, step by step I began to grasp the seriousness of this ongoing ecocide.

Unfortunately, no actions by society, nature conservationists, or organizations have changed the situation in any way so far. The extermination of wolves hasn’t even slowed down! Governmental systems ignore any interconnections in biological systems, scientific data, and evaluations.

Today, in this article, I want to show you a chronicle of what’s happening right now with wolves in our country. It’s a brief overview of the problem based on concrete facts in various regions—starting in 2025, without taking into account December and November 2024, meaning only the last two months (January and February).

CHRONICLE OF THE WOLF GENOCIDE

Early January — Karelia (Medvezhyegorsky and Suoyarvsky districts)

Wolves appeared twice near human settlements in search of food. In Povenets on January 5, a wolf strangled a dog (a situation similar to what’s happening with tigers in the Far East). In the village of Piitsiyoki, a game inspection officer and his assistant drove the pack away from residential houses and laid out bait.

Karelia’s own authorities note that in the previous season, about 5,000 permits for wolf hunting were issued (meaning more than 5,000 people obtained the right to kill wolves). A total of over 110 individuals have already been destroyed.

January 5–9 — Bashkortostan (the closed town of Mezhgorye)

Wolves entered the town and began attacking dogs; there is information about at least three dogs killed. The situation is critical, just like with the tigers that have nothing to eat. The predators have to go to people to survive! The authorities, I remind you, claimed that tigers were not starving and sent “specialists” to report on an abundance of prey. However, in the end, the federal government acknowledged all the problems we had been talking about: the tigers were indeed starving, food was scarce, and their habitat was destroyed.

It’s the same with wolves! The difference is that wolves are the most defenseless animals in our country under the law, while tigers are at least in the Red Book.

After the wolves appeared in Mezhgorye, the local administration formed a group involving the police, the National Guard (Rosgvardiya), and employees of the South Ural Reserve. A request was also sent to the Republican Ministry of Ecology for the urgent extermination of the wolves!

Around January 6 — Bashkortostan (the village of Inzer, Beloretsky District)

A pack of wolves began regularly entering the village. At night, the predators broke into a barn and tore apart six goats.

The authorities started destroying the wolves.

January 13 — Buryatia (Barguzinsky District)

In the evening, near the ulus (village) of Khilgan, a pack of wolves attacked a herd of cows. Specialists from Burprirodnadzor arrived on the scene; they captured and killed one wolf.

The rest of the wolves are also being hunted by hunters to be destroyed.

January 27 — Buryatia (Ulan-Ude)

At a session of the People’s Khural, deputies raised the “wolf issue” due to the increased number of predators coming close to people. In the Khorinsky District, a wolf approached the road and was not afraid of humans. There were incidents of wolves attacking livestock (five predators tore apart a flock of sheep).

According to the authorities, the wolf population has grown over three years. Therefore, 760 wolves were officially exterminated in 2024, and they plan to kill even more. Hunters at the meeting with the authorities also demanded an increase in bounties for killing wolves (in some regions of the country, the reward for one killed wolf already exceeds 50,000 rubles) and requested reimbursement for fuel and ammunition.

Consequently, I see what is happening as creating a “threat” to justify budget spending on fighting wolves. This area is extremely profitable for officials because it’s almost impossible to track where the money actually goes!

The Buryatia authorities announced that they are considering raising the reward for each killed wolf—precisely what I constantly talk about.

Early January — Amur Region (Verkhnezeisk settlement, Zeisky District)

Since the beginning of 2025, two wolves have settled near the settlement. On the night of January 2, in the territory of Verkhnezeisk, wolves killed another dog, which was on a chain.

In response, on January 5, game wardens organized a sweep: a group of nine individuals (employees of Amurokhotupravleniye, the Protected Areas Directorate, and local hunters) searched the nearby forest on snowmobiles and in vehicles.

By the tracks, they discovered there were actually three wolves—a previously broken pack that can no longer hunt normally and feed itself.

These predators have most likely already been destroyed.

January 15 — Yakutia (Republic of Sakha)

A large-scale campaign to exterminate wolves has been declared in the region due to the so-called “invasion.” On January 15, a three-month predator hunt began.

The authorities are forming 140 “wolf-hunting brigades” (!!). For each killed wolf, hunters receive 20,000 rubles from the Yakutia budget plus regional supplements. Once again, in my view, it’s just a corrupt scheme to “launder” budget funds.

All 140 brigades will use both ground drives and aerial shooting from helicopters—leaving the wolves virtually no chance of survival!

All this is justified by wolf attacks on livestock (reindeer herders), though all the necessary methods to protect herds and the technical means to prevent conflicts do exist—something we’ve repeatedly mentioned! But, as is the case worldwide, wolves become scapegoats for all livestock losses, prompting demands for compensation.

This was also previously addressed by a Russian scientist, a Doctor of Science, whom I mentioned earlier—Nikolay Zheleznov-Chukotsky.

January 20 — Zabaykalsky Krai (Chita District)

Hungry wolves surrounded the villages of Domna and Ingoda near Chita. The predators were seen during the day near residential areas, and their howls were heard at night. It’s reported that wolves began entering yards and attacking livestock. For instance, a resident of Yeremino lost a large guard dog (an Alabai), which a pack tore apart while the owner was driving away the livestock.

After that, the district head, Viktor Mashukov, stated that the authorities had asked hunters to complete the necessary paperwork and start destroying the wolves.

January — Tyva (Tuva)

In the republic, a planned month-long campaign to liquidate wolves has begun to protect livestock farms. About 500 hunters are participating in raids to “regulate” the gray predators’ numbers! Each wolf killed is rewarded with 8,000 rubles from the budget, with some districts adding up to 6,000 rubles more. Certain rewards are given “in kind”—for example, one sheep for one killed wolf.

In 2024, Tuva exterminated 350 wolves. The killing continues now! Active wolf hunters are granted additional incentives by the authorities: besides money, the best hunter will receive a snowmobile.

January 28 — Altai Republic (Gorny Altai)

The region’s authorities have doubled the cash bounties for killing wolves. Starting in January 2025, the payment from the budget is 8,000 rubles per animal (compared to 4,000 rubles previously), with an additional 2,000 rubles paid by the districts.

A total of 2.2 million rubles has been allocated in the regional budget for the “fight against wolves,” and municipalities will add around 2,000 rubles per “head.”

Meanwhile, the head of the republic also noted the problem of feral dogs, which in packs present an additional danger. Hunters were instructed to ramp up shooting wolves and hybrids (wolfdogs) to protect the population and farms.

(More details on this at the end of the article.)

January 26 — Vologda Oblast

The regional authorities reported the initial results of measures incentivizing wolf hunting. According to the Department of Natural Resources, by the end of January, 10 hunters will receive bounties for wolves killed during the new season. Recall that on August 1, 2024, by decree of Governor Georgy Filimonov, the payment for a killed wolf increased to 20,000 rubles (it was lower before).

Vologda hunters are actively using these permits: wolf culling is allowed without quotas to “contain” their numbers. These incentives are related to more frequent wolf attacks on domestic animals in the region.

February 6 — Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO)

In the NAO, the traditional winter wolf hunt continues to protect the reindeer herding brigades. For the 2024/2025 season, 173 permits have been issued; the hunt will last until March 31, and there is no set harvest limit. The region has a system of high bounties: 17,764.4 rubles for a killed female wolf and 14,211.5 rubles for a male.

January — Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

In early 2025, measures to combat wolves, which reduce the reindeer population, were intensified in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The authorities doubled the bounty for each wolf pelt: now they pay 30,000 rubles for an adult male and 40,000 rubles for a female (in 2024, the flat rate was 15,000 rubles).

These increased payments are intended to encourage private hunters to kill wolves more actively. In addition to monetary rewards, the region also uses modern technology: there are plans to expand the use of GPS collars on alpha wolves so their movements can be tracked and targeted culling can be conducted from the air.

In some parts of Chukotka, they already practice aerial hunting of wolves from helicopters and snowmobiles.

Interestingly, we propose technical means to PROTECT WOLVES, while officials use them to kill pack leaders, leading to even more conflicts and further wolf incursions into human areas.

February 7 — Kamchatka Krai

Game wardens shot a mature wolf while patrolling the forest near the village of Razdolny (Yelizovsky District).

Kamchatka is associated with particular scandals. In 2021, the authorities officially stated that only 179 wolves lived across all of the Kamchatka nature reserves and issued permits to kill them all! We were sharply opposed to this and suggested using modern means to prevent conflicts.

Our suggestions (and I, personally) were publicly ridiculed by Kamchatka’s Minister of Natural Resources, who said they would continue destroying wolves anyway, and that “Pashkov suggests trackers and monitoring to protect wolves, ha-ha.”

This caused extreme bewilderment because such technologies have long been successfully used worldwide. That is, the Minister simply doesn’t realize these solutions exist and finds the very idea of protecting animals instead of destroying them laughable!

However, the scandal was so huge that the officials quickly “changed their tune,” and already for the 2024–2025 hunting season they announced that the region supposedly had around 600 wolves. These figures were released by the regional Ministry of Forestry, referring to specialists dependent on the officials.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the situation with wolves in our country. I could continue this article much further, as the listed cases are just a fraction. Conflicts are happening across the country on a massive scale.

Moreover, almost everywhere, officials report the appearance of wolf-dog hybrids (wolfdogs). I mentioned this in the context of the Altai Republic, and you can read more about it in my book “The Right to Life.”

The essence of the problem: it’s precisely the extermination of wolves that triggers conflicts, wolf-dog hybridization, and even greater calls to “deal with the gray threat.”

• Hunters destroy the pack by killing the alpha and leading wolves. The remaining younger individuals are unable to hunt and feed themselves. They are forced to approach human settlements, rummaging through garbage dumps. Lone wolves appear around settlements, which ultimately leads to hybridization with stray dogs. These findings are confirmed by official scientific studies.
• There are no systematic evaluations or projects to differentiate true wild wolves from hybrids. If hybrids or lone wolves, left without a pack, approach people, it becomes a pretext for destroying all wolves, including the last truly wild packs that still exist in nature.
• Then the cycle repeats: again there are broken packs, lone wolves coming to people, and again they are exterminated.

This endless bloodshed must be urgently halted at the federal level! While we managed to get recognition of the problem with tigers, we have achieved nothing with wolves for many years—because wolves, again, are considered “parasites” rather than nature’s orderlies by current law, and all they “deserve” is extermination.

I strongly advise all my colleagues to read the following materials:

• Do not forget the gray brother: the extermination of wolves continues
• You can also download my book “The Right to Life” in defense of wolves for free and read it to understand what’s really going on.

In addition, I ask all allies to help in our struggle! We are essentially fighting alone for the wolf. Please spread this material and tell people the truth.

You are the only voice for the Russian Taiga!

© PAVEL PASHKOV