In his interview with Vokrug Sveta (Around the World) magazine, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the work on preservation of rare animals, particularly the projects related to the Amur tiger.

Making these projects viable, he said, required efforts at many levels: support was granted to scientific research projects, a “tiger summit” was held, significantly tougher laws were adopted regarding poaching, and work was done to streamline the activities and management of the nature reserves, whose area was considerably increased.

In his interview, the President emphasised the importance of environmental projects. He believes that it is easier to illustrate the essence of the difficulties involved using efforts to preserve Russia’s rare animals as an example.

“Tigers inhabit the areas where they can easily find prey, and there cannot be too much of it. Consequently the wellbeing of these rare species depend on the specific ecological system with quite concrete issues of its preservation, and this becomes clear not only to specialists but also to the business community and general public,” Mr Putin said.