According to him, the bulk of illegal logging in 41 regions of Russia, focused on logging, accounts for the Irkutsk region.
“In the 41 forest regions that are on fire, 60 to 80% of all illegal logging falls on the Irkutsk Region,” TASS quoted him as saying.
He also added that this subject of Russia became the only region where the Rosleskhoz representative office was opened in connection with the difficult situation.
Earlier, a criminal case was opened in the Irkutsk region on the fact of illegal logging in the Taishet district.
In November 2019, two criminal cases were opened by Irkutsk Customs regarding the smuggling of lumber in China on a large scale. In the same month, law enforcement agencies in Siberia detained two local residents suspected of large-scale smuggling of timber from Russia abroad.
In October 2019, Irkutsk Customs opened a criminal case over the smuggling of lumber to Afghanistan.
On June 6, 2019, in Moscow, FSB officers detained Sergey Sheverda, Minister of the Irkutsk Region Forestry Complex. He is suspected of abuse of power. According to law enforcement agencies, he authorized illegal logging on an area of 120 hectares in the Tukolon nature reserve. The amount of damage is estimated at 748 million rubles.
Details are in the material RT.