Russia: President Vladimir Putin's chief economic adviser likened the Kyoto Protocol to the Auschwitz concentration camp yesterday, saying the pact to curb global warming would kill off world economic growth. Daniel McLaughlin reports from Moscow
Mr Andrei Illarionov has repeatedly urged the Kremlin not to ratify the agreement on limiting emissions of so-called greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which needs Russia's signature to come into effect. He says it would make it impossible for the country to fulfil Mr Putin's declared ambition to double the size of the economy by 2010.
"The Kyoto Protocol is a death pact, however strange it may sound, because its main aim is to strangle economic growth and economic activity in countries that accept the protocol's requirements," Mr Illarionov said.
He told reporters that he had initially compared Kyoto to Gosplan, the commission that ran the Soviet Union's command economy. "But then we realised Gosplan was much more humane and so we ought to call the Kyoto Protocol an international Gulag.
"In the Gulag though, you got the same ration daily and it didn't get smaller day by day...In the end we had to call the Kyoto Protocol an international Auschwitz." Mr Illarionov's comments are unlikely to impress Jewish groups or environmentalists, thought the latter may be getting used to controversial comments on Kyoto from Russian officials.
Last September, Mr Putin stunned the World Climate Change Conference in Moscow by speculating on the potential benefits of global warming.
"Russia is a northern country and maybe it wouldn't be that bad," he told grim-faced delegates. "We could spend less on fur coats and other warm things. Agricultural experts say that grain harvests are increasing and would increase further, thank God."
After the United States pulled out of the pact, Russia's ratification became crucial to take the cumulative emissions of signatory states to at least 55 per cent of the world output of greenhouse gases. Only then will the protocol come into force.
But Moscow has stalled on ratification, saying it could stifle growth, and is holding out for guarantees of revenue from the sale of spare emissions rights and investment in cleaner industry and power production.
Ratification is also a useful bargaining chip for Russia in protracted talks over joining the World Trade Organisation.