EnviroSpin Watch

Meanwhile, back in Russia.....

Andrei Illarionov, President Vladimir Putin's personal adviser on economics, likewise tells it as it is:

'Illarionov Attacks Britain, Vows to Bury Kyoto' (The Moscow Times, July 12):

"President Vladimir Putin's personal adviser on all things economic last week accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government of declaring 'all-out and total war on Russia' and using 'bribes, blackmail and murder threats' to force it to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

In a six-hour diatribe, Andrei Illarionov accused visiting Blair adviser Sir David King, the British government's top scientist, of trying, through pressure from Blair's office and through Foreign Secretary Jack Straw personally, to hijack a two-day conference on the global environmental treaty at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

'During the past year [the British] have used bribes, blackmail and murder threats to put pressure on Russia, which shows how desperate their case is,' Illarionov said without elaborating.....

King filibustered the conference for four hours in an effort to block opponents of the protocol from presenting their findings, Illarionov said....." (read on).

Particularly noteworthy in this piece are the following:

"But late Thursday, when asked by a Japanese journalist whether his fierce opposition to Kyoto reflected the Kremlin's position, Illarionov said Putin had never said he backs the treaty. 'Putin didn't say he supports the Kyoto Protocol, he said he supports the Kyoto process,' Illarionov said."

"Illarionov accused Britain and other 'imperialist' rich nations of using Kyoto to keep poor nations from developing."

But I especially enjoyed:

"'Europe has seen the effects of the national-socialist ideology and the Marxist ideology. The imperialist philosophy behind Kyoto is nothing short of these in its scale,' he said."

Philip, reaching for the samovar. The Russian roulette is far from over. Tea anyone?