As he was opening the conference, President Putin highlighted his recent meeting with the eminent journalist. That was when he was visiting the Komsomolskaya Pravda editorial premises, May 23.
The journalist "was delving into a major problem-how to rescue forests, and what government policies in that field should be," the President said.
"The government has joined hands with the State Duma [parliament's lower house] to work at a number of related legislative acts. Bearing that teamwork in mind, we arrived at the idea of convening this conference to talk once again about what the government had to offer in that sphere, about how debates with parliamentarians were going on, and what part spokesmen of public organizations-mainly ecological-were taking in those efforts," the President went on.
As President Putin met the Komsomolskaya Pravda editorial staff, Peskov highlighted barbaric lumbering. He said the Forest Code, now being drafted, boiled down to forest privatization. Researchers and the public were kept away from debates on the code, and no one was responsible for the survival of forest preserves. A federal Forestry Office, that had been active for two hundred years, was disbanded together with the Nature Preservation Committee, Peskov stressed.
The President said that day that the matter deserved "more attention", and called Peskov to meet again for a more detailed discussion.
Vasili Peskov, 75, is a prominent press reporter and correspondent, and topical writer. His activities have always been dedicated to Nature. He is closely engaged in environment protection problems. His best-read book, "Steps on Dewy Grass", brought him, in 1964, the Lenin Prize-the Soviet Union's highest award.
