RUSSIA SLOW TO MOBILIZE ON ENVIRONMENT WORKING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 003013

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/14/2019
TAGS: PREL SENV EAID KCRM KGHG EFIS RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA SLOW TO MOBILIZE ON ENVIRONMENT WORKING
GROUP COOPERATION

REF: MOSCOW 454 (NOTAL)

Classified By: EST Counselor Deborah Klepp for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Russian working-level coordinator of
the Environment Working Group under the Bilateral
Presidential Commission told us on December 11 that the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) would
likely be interested in working with the United States under
the Working Group on biodiversity, protected territories,
chemical and waste management, environmental governance,
technological issues, and climate change. However, the
Ministry's leadership is not focused on the Working Group,
and the Foreign Ministry has not issued guidance to MNRE on
the Working Group's functioning or instructions to formulate
an agenda for cooperation. He further cautioned that Working
Group projects should first be discussed and developed on the
working level. He criticized how the United States developed
and presented its recent working-level proposal to jump-start
cooperation to reduce black carbon emissions in the Arctic.
Since it was not discussed with Russian experts in advance,
it was "poorly developed" and stands "no chance" of Russian
approval. The MFA's Senior Arctic Official on December 14
was not much more positive, saying the U.S. delegation is
welcome to discuss the black carbon proposal at the climate
talks in Copenhagen, but should not mention Russia as a
possible partner. END SUMMARY.

ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY NOT FOCUSED ON WORKING GROUP
-------------- --------------


2. (C) Andrey Peshkov (please protect),Chief of the Section
on Toxic Waste Management and Nuclear Safety in the
International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE),confidentially
shared with us on December 11 the state of play on the
Russian side in launching the Working Group. Russia's
working-level coordinator for the Environment Working Group
of the Bilateral Presidential Commission, Peshkov also serves
as chairman of the Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP),
a working group of the Arctic Council, and in that capacity
has been the chief working-level contact of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in implementing toxic
waste cleanup projects in the Arctic. Peshkov claimed it was
largely on his initiative that the GOR proposed separating
environment cooperation from the Energy Working Group, and he
considers it a victory for U.S.-Russian environment
cooperation. Peshkov explained that he is currently the only
MNRE official focused on the Environment Working Group. MFA,
which is charged with managing the Commission process, has
not yet issued guidance to MNRE on how the Working Groups are
to function, nor has it ordered MNRE to formulate an agenda
for cooperation. Consequently, he said, MNRE has no formal
list of priority areas of cooperation or projects to propose.

MNRE NOT SERIOUS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
-------------- --


3. (C) Peshkov cited his ministry's leadership as an example
of the lack of seriousness with which the GOR approaches
environmental cooperation. Minister Sergey Trutnev is
largely focused on natural resource management -- i.e., oil,
gas and mineral resources. Deputy Minister Igor Maydanov is
a former diplomat with little professional background in
environmental protection; in his former position as the
MNRE's Director of International Relations, he showed little
interest in cooperation with the United States. The newly
appointed Director of the International Relations Department,
Nuritdin Inamov, a former MFA colleague of Maydanov, has no
background in environmental protection. (Note: Inamov most
recently served as Deputy Trade Representative at the Russian
Embassy in Bangkok. End note.) Since November 2, when
Alexander Bedritskiy was removed as director of the Russian
Hydrometeorological Service (Roshydromet),the country's
leading scientific agency on climate issues, no new permanent
director has been appointed, and Peshkov said he is not aware
of any candidates in the running.

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4. (SBU) Even long-standing experts within MNRE, who could
stand to benefit the most from expanded cooperation, have
expressed trepidation about creating the Working Group at
all. The chief of MNRE's Department of Protected
Territories, Amirkhan Amirkhanov, reportedly told
representatives of the NGO Wild Salmon Center in the first
week of December that the Ministry had rejected plans to
create a separate Environment Working Group. Amirkhanov
reportedly feared that the Bilateral Commission process would
require him to submit his ongoing, and successful, bilateral
cooperation programs under Area V of the U.S.-Russia
Environmental Protection Agreement ("Wildlife Without
Borders") to a bureaucratic approval process and thereby
disrupt them. Peshkov told us, however, that Amirkhanov's
concerns would not affect the Working Group process. Peshkov
said he would ask other MNRE officials to consider
incorporating existing projects into the Working Group.

AREAS OF RUSSIAN INTEREST
--------------


5. (SBU) Informally, Peshkov said that the Russian side will
likely be most interested in cooperating on the following
issues:

- Biodiversity;

- National parks and other specially protected nature
territories;

- Chemicals and toxic waste management, including mercury and
persistent organic pollutants (POPs);

- Institutional issues, including environmental regulations,
monitoring, and enforcement;

- Innovation, use of best available technologies, and cleaner
production; and

- Climate change.


6. (SBU) Peshkov noted that he included climate change in the
above list only for political reasons. He dismissed the
"hysteria" over climate change, saying he believes it is a
purely natural process with no significant anthropogenic
component. (Note: This is the prevailing view of most of our
Russian counterparts, including in the Russian Academy of
Sciences. End note.)


7. (SBU) Peshkov recommended that, in order to develop a
coherent and constructive agenda for the Working Group,
groups of leading experts from each side must meet to discuss
areas that are of high priority for both sides, and those in
which resources will allow for progress. As he understands
it, the Russian government views the Bilateral Presidential
Commission as a new type of cooperation, in which Russia will
be an equal partner in all respects, including financing.
Russia will not agree to a project, Peshkov said, unless it
is prepared to pay its own fair share of the cost of
implementation.

MNRE NOT ENVISAGING INTERAGENCY COOPERATION IN EWG
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) Several areas of potential environment cooperation
lie outside MNRE's ambit. In the area of forestry, Peshkov
reminded us, only specially protected forest territories and
hunting in forests fall under MNRE's authority. Other forest
issues remain under the management of the Ministry of
Agriculture and its Federal Forestry Service. (Note: Peshkov
did not indicate that forestry issues would return in the
beginning of 2010 to MNRE, as he expected in July 2009. End
note.) Likewise, he said, protection of fisheries falls
under the Federal Fisheries Service, which is unconnected
with MNRE. Peshkov said that, as yet, he has no intention of
reaching out beyond MNRE for interagency cooperation under

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the Environment Working Group; MNRE has no control over other
agencies' funding and no authority to direct their programs
or personnel, and higher authorities have shown no
inclination to encourage such cooperation. Rather, he said,
MNRE plans to implement cooperation programs exclusively
through agencies under its administrative purview. (Note:
MNRE-affiliated agencies include the weather and climate
agency Roshydromet, as well as environmental regulatory
agency Rosprirodnadzor. End note.)

U.S. BLACK CARBON INITIATIVE: OUTLOOK NOT GOOD
-------------- -


9. (C) Peshkov harshly criticized the manner in which the
United States approached Russia in early December with a $3-5
million proposal to cooperate on initiatives to reduce black
carbon emissions in the Arctic. Peshkov said that the U.S.
proposal, which came from the State Department directly to
the GOR Senior Arctic Official at MFA, had not been discussed
with MNRE in advance. The proposal, in his opinion, was
badly prepared and apparently written without any expert
consultation. Peshkov said there is "zero chance" of Russian
support for the proposal, as such a project would have
required months of serious joint discussion and development.
When we reminded him that the April Arctic Council
ministerial launched the black carbon task force, he mused,
"Maybe if we had started in April..." Ambassador-at-Large
Anton Vasiliev, Russia's Senior Arctic Official, was not much
more encouraging; on December 6 he told us that the black
carbon initiative came as a bit of a shock to Russian
officials. On December 14, Vasiliev told us that U.S.
delegates are welcome to announce the black carbon initiative
at the Copenhagen climate summit, but should not mention
Russia as a potential partner in any such announcement.
Vasiliev did tell the U.S. Senior Arctic Official that Russia
would be able to support the initiative if it is brought into
the Arctic Council; however, on December 14 he told us that
he did not envision Arctic Council projects being
incorporated into the Bilateral Commission.

COMMENT: U.S. MUST TAKE THE INITIATIVE
--------------


10. (C) Unfortunately, the USG no longer has strong
high-level ties with today's environmental policymakers in
Russia. Peshkov holds strong -- and sometimes strongly
heterodox -- views on environment issues, but he is among our
most senior regular contacts within MNRE. His assessment,
combined with the second-hand report of Amirkhanov's
statement, suggests that MNRE is waiting for further
instruction from MFA before launching the Environment Working
Group. MFA interlocutors have sarcastically called the
Ministry a "black hole," joking that it is easier to get
information from Chukotka, the most distant province from
Moscow, than from MNRE. So we suggest that EUR DAS Dan
Russell request that Ambassador-at-Large Eduard Malayan,
Russia's Presidential Commission coordinator, provide MNRE
with clear instructions to get moving. But we also would
like to provide the U.S. side's Environment Working Group
one-pager to MNRE as soon as possible. After the Working
Group co-chairs agree on the list of priority areas of
cooperation, we endorse Peshkov's suggestion to convene
leading experts from both the U.S. and Russian sides in those
topic areas to develop specific program proposals in which
resources are available.
Beyrle