The Kremlin will not participate in the annual action “Earth Hour”

This year, the Moscow Kremlin will not take part in the annual “Earth Hour” event, in which the lights are turned off around the world. This is due to the fact that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which organizes the action, was recognized as a “foreign agent” in Russia. This was reported by “Interfax” with reference to the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

The Kremlin has been participating in the campaign since 2013. The purpose of the action “Earth Time” is to form a responsible attitude of a person to the environment. All over the world, people turn off lights and electrical appliances at the same time, and at famous architectural projects, they turn off the backlight.

In early March, the Ministry of Justice of Russia entered the world’s largest international environmental protection organization – the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – into the register of “foreign agents”. It was founded in 1961 and has offices in almost all countries of the world. The fund is engaged in the protection of animals and plants under threat of extinction and large-scale environmental projects. The organization intends to seek the cancellation of the status of “foreign agent” through the court.

Legislation on “foreign agents” in Russia appeared in 2012. The law allowed the Ministry of Justice to recognize non-profit organizations as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and engage in political activity. The criteria by which such activity is determined are not clearly defined in the law, which allows the authorities to pursue organizations working in the fields of education, culture, health care, ecology, and protection of human rights. Subsequently, it became possible to recognize mass media and individuals as “foreign agents”.