Russia pulls away from Kyoto (click for full story)

Russia says it will not ratify in its present form the Kyoto Protocol designed to mitigate global warming.
"The Kyoto Protocol places significant limitations on the economic growth of Russia," presidential aide Andrei Illarionov has announced in Moscow. The landmark environmental pact cannot now enter into legal force, especially since the US has also repudiated it.

It means the protocol will either have to be renegotiated or the nations that have signed will have to go it alone. The Russian decision will come as a devastating blow to many of the delegates at a meeting of the signatories to the United Nations Climate Change Convention, being held in Milan this week.

But they will not be without all hope. Michael Williams, a spokesman for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said he hoped the Russians could still be won round. "Russia has over the last few months sent mixed signals but [President Vladimir] Putin didn't rule out ratification last September," he told the AFP news agency. "We remain optimistic that Russia will indeed ratify."