November 26, 2019

Not a single official has yet been prosecuted for illegal actions that have led to the capture of hundred of whales and damage to the aquatic bioresources of our country. And it is unlikely that they will…
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Only a legal ban on captures will save our whales and dolphins…
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Sakhalin Environmental Watch asked the Investigator and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation to bring to justice those who had illegally captured 11 orcas and 90 beluga whales. Reasons for such appeal are decisions of Sakhalin and Primorsky courts, which established:
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-The Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources illegally approved the positive decision of the state environmental expertise of the TAC (total allowable catch) for killer whales;
Federal Agency for Fishery and its deputy head P.S. Savchuk issued quotas for orcas and white whales illegally;
The Amur department of Federal Agency for Fishery issued permits for orca captures with violations;
Nikolaev District Animal Disease Control Station issued veterinary certificates for orcas with violations.
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The responses from the Khabarovsk Investigative Committee and the Amur Nature Protection Prosecutor’s Office inform the following:
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❌criminal case initiated on 16.11.2018 under Part 3 of Article 256 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the fact of illegal capture of orcas and beluga whales is STILL at the stage of preliminary investigation;
❌There are no grounds for bringing Federal Agency for Fishery officials to justice, as the “procedural” violations and the Prosecutor General’s Office has already made proposals to eliminate violations;
❌the initiation of a criminal case against the deputy head of the Federal Agency for Fishery was denied – there is no evidence of a crime under Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Negligence”, but the decision to not initiate criminal case has been canceled and the investigation is carried out again;
❌initiated by the Criminal Code under Part 1 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Excess of official authority” on officials of the Amur Territorial Administration of the Federal Fisheries Agency for illegally issuing permits to captors for the capture of killer whales and beluga whales was canceled by the Khabarovsk prosecutor’s office and deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.
❌The Amur Prosecutor’s Office made a submission to the Veterinary Administration of the Khabarovsk Government for irregularities in processing veterinary documents for orcas.