A senior economic advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly condemned the Kyoto Protocol on the day it took effect, calling the climate agreement harmful to Russia and urging the country to walk away from it. Andrei Illarionov warned that the treaty's restrictions could shrink Russian GDP by 60 percent by 2050 compared to 2003 levels.
Illarionov argued that Russia had never before faced legally binding caps on its economic expansion, calling the situation unprecedented in a thousand years of history. A second Kremlin advisor, Igor Chouvalov, acknowledged his colleague raised valid points but said the analysis overlooked the political benefits Russia stood to gain from participation.
The Kyoto Protocol entered into force 16 February 2005, following Russia's ratification in October 2004. The agreement obliges 34 industrialized nations to collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Russia's emissions had already dropped as much as 38 percent between 1990 and 1999 due to its economic collapse, giving Moscow significant flexibility under the treaty's terms.
The United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases at the time, declined to ratify the accord.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in February 2005, in its own words.