“Undesirable Organization”: Russia Bans WWF

Following Greenpeace, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia also declared WWF as an “undesirable organization.” All activities of this environmental organization are banned in Russia.

According to the conclusions of the Russian authorities, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world’s largest organization for the preservation of natural heritage on Earth, “was actually used as a cover for the implementation of projects that pose serious threats to the security of the country’s economic sphere” and allegedly conducted “deceitful and tendentious” campaigns against the energy sector in general and against oil and natural gas producers in particular.

As emphasized by sources in the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, “the WWF campaigns were aimed at tying up the economic development of Russia.” In May last year, Greenpeace Russia was also banned as “undesirable and subversive.” The WWF that has been operating in Russia since 1994 was already marked in March as a “foreign agent,” a spy-tinged designation that Russia applies to non-governmental organizations, journalists, and activists of various profiles who receive funding from abroad for their activities.

At the same time, the EU approved a new 11th package of sanctions against Russia, which actually does not add anything new to the tenth package, but introduces stricter control measures and, therefore, will not allow to be bypassed. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the 11th package “a tool against tax evasion that will not allow Russia to get sanctioned products.”