Russia

Russia's Numto Nature Reserve in western Siberia contains a sacred lake, endangered cranes and valuable wetlands for the indigenous Nenet and Khanty peoples. Last year, the nature reserve's borders were redrawn by the regional government to make way for new drilling operations for the Russian oil company Surgutneftegas, forcing out indigenous groups.

In March 2013, the presidents of the so-called BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – met in Durban, South Africa. Surrounded by security barriers so that no one who would dare to protest could get near them, the presidents of these nations discussed a number of issues, including cooperation proposals. One of the proposals most widely highlighted in coverage of the event was the creation of a BRICS development bank, with USD 50 billion in seed capital contributed in five equal parts by the bloc’s member countries.

 WRM information sheets on GE tree research

The uplands between the Yenisei and the Lena rivers are one of the last regions of unbroken boreal forest --"taiga"-- in Eurasia. This region is the homeland to Evenki, Ket, Sel’kup, Sakha, and Dolgan aboriginal hunters and herders. Although Cossack frontiersmen used the Yenisei, Lena, and Lower Tunguska rivers as their main route to subdue and integrate Eastern Siberia into the Russian Empire in the 17th Century, the central Siberian plateau escaped most of the dislocations of Russian and Soviet industrialism in the 19th and 20th Century.