Is Russia in or out? 03 December 03

More confusion from Moscow this week. First Andrei Illarionov, Putin’s economic adviser and a self-confessed global warming sceptic, told the world’s media that “in its current form this protocol [Kyoto] can’t be ratified”. There followed a rash of ‘Kyoto is dead’ stories in just about every newspaper. Then someone else at the Kremlin pointed out that Illarionov doesn’t have a monopoly over Russian policy – which, officially, is still to move towards ratification. So Russia may yet still ratify, and everyone now meeting at COP9 in Milan still has something to talk about.