Vladimir Putin took off in a motorized hang glider last September wearing goggles and a white suit, on a mission to guide young Siberian cranes on their first migration. The publicity stunt wasn't the Russian president's first attempt to cultivate his image as an environmental hero. When wildfires raged through Russia's central region in 2010, he hopped on a plane and personally dumped water over two raging blazes. And a few weeks later he helped tag some endangered gray whales (for science) with a crossbow.

Despite the carefully constructed photo ops and He-Man antics, Putin's environmental record is far from heroic. In fact, for more than a decade, he has whittled away at Russia's environmental protection laws, tried to cover up the severity of some the country's problems (such as its forest fire epidemic), and generally failed to address mismanagement of the country's forests, waterways, and air quality.

To make matters worse, a year ago Putin began harassing and intimidating nonprofit groups--including major environmental organizations--requiring them to register as "foreign agents" under a new law, investigating their operations, and handing out fines for violations of that law. Some groups are fighting back with lawsuits; others may have to shut down or leave Russia. This morning, the White House announced that President Obama has officially scrapped plans to meet face-to-face with Putin during next month's G-20 economic summit in Russia, due to rising diplomatic tensions and human rights concerns.

These issues could receive more attention as the world's athletes prepare to compete in Sochi next February for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Until then, one activist who plans to stand her ground is Maria (Masha) Vorontsova, a biologist who has been toiling to protect Russia's environment and wildlife for decades. Vorontsova established the International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) Russian office in 1994 and has since led high-profile campaigns to protect bears, seals, and whales from hunting and habitat destruction. She has also worked closely with other environmental NGOs in the country to stop a major gas pipeline project from disrupting endangered gray whale feeding grounds.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/onearth/ignore-the-stunts-russian_b_3733845.html

One can see that Barry O'Feral in New South Wales and Newman in Queensland are strongly jealous of the way Putin can bugger up the environment with minimal moral dilemma and so little opposition since most of those who don't like what is, are either in prison or deported. But this should not be an impediment to our esteemed buggerers — Bazza and Newman. With the weight of the capitalist empire behind them, they can do the same as Putin — while giving the impression of being considerate in regard to environmental matters... At least, Putin is not THAT duplicitous....