Key Putin Economic Advisor - Kyoto Protocol = "Fascism"

Andrei Illarionov, President Putin’s controversial economic policy advisor, speaking at an investment conference in Moscow, declared that Russia won’t be able to double its GDP in ten years if it signs the Kyoto Protocol. “It is impossible,” Illarionov was quoted by RIA Novosti.

Illarionov is known as a staunch opponent of the environmental treaty which seeks to curb the emission of greenhouse gases, widely believed to be responsible for the process of global warming.

He first advised the Russian president to “kill Kyoto” in April, declaring that global outrage over Russia killing off the Kyoto Protocol would be better than harming the economy by limiting gas emissions. When, following a May summit with the European Union, Russian authorities announced that Russia will ratify Kyoto in exchange for the EU’s approval of Russia’s WTO bid, Illarionov claimed that ratification of the Protocol would impede the country’s economic growth.

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The presidential advisor finished his speech by saying: “The Kyoto Protocol is based on the most insolent intervention in the economic growth, in particular, and the development of human civilization, in general, and it can be compared to fascism.”

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http://www.mosnews.com/money/2004/09/27/illarionovkyoto.shtml