Russia will refuse to participate in the annual international environmental action "Earth Hour". According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the reason for the refusal is the status of a “foreign agent”, which was recently received by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which is the organizer of the action.
Earth Hour is held on the last or penultimate Saturday in March. The essence of the action is that its participants must turn off the light for one hour. As planned by WWF, Earth Hour should stimulate interest in climate and environmental issues in general. The action was first held in 2007 in Australia, and a couple of years later it became one of the most massive in history, touching about a billion people. Russia has been participating in the action since 2009.
WWF was included in the register of "foreign agents" of the Ministry of Justice on March 10. The agency explained the reasons for this decision as follows: “Under the guise of activities to protect nature and the environment, the biological diversity of species, representatives of the fund tried to influence the decisions of the executive and legislative authorities of the Russian Federation, hindered the implementation of industrial and infrastructure projects.”