MOSCOW – A senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia could not ratify the Kyoto Protocol limiting emissions of greenhouse gases, dealing a mortal blow to the pact that required Russia's ratification to take effect.
"In its current form, the Kyoto Protocol places significant limitations on the economic growth of Russia," Putin's economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, told reporters in the Kremlin. "Of course, in this current form this protocol can't be ratified."
Putin had previously cast doubts on Moscow's willingness to ratify the protocol but hadn't ruled out ratification.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol calls for countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, a key factor in the theory of human-caused global warming.
To come into force, the pact must be ratified by no fewer than 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions in 1990. Under the treaty's complex rules, the minimum could be reached only with Russia's ratification because the United States and several other nations have rejected the treaty.
At a U.N. climate conference in Milan, Italy, a Greenpeace official insisted that Russia's decision would not stop other nations' efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.
"The encouraging news about this is that countries are going ahead with reducing their emissions without having Russia ratify," Steven Guilbeault said.
Guilbeault said he thought Illarionov's stand was "a political comment in light of upcoming Duma elections" Sunday in the lower house of Russia's legislature.
The conference opened Monday, gathering government officials, activists and scientists, but doubt over Russia cast a cloud over it. Participants say that they doubt any major breakthroughs will be achieved and that alternative strategies at keeping emissions cuts alive would be discussed in the corridors.
Russia's reluctance to ratify the pact despite its earlier pledge to do so has vexed Kyoto's European and U.N. backers, who warned Moscow that it would lose politically and economically if it fails to ratify Kyoto.
But Illarionov, who made his comments on the sidelines of Putin's meeting with European business executives in the Kremlin, said firmly that the pact was against Russian interests.
"It's impossible to undertake responsibilities that place serious limits on the country's growth," Illarionov said. He said it would be unfair to Russia to curb emissions and stymie its own growth while the United States and other nations that account for the bulk of global emissions refuse to join the pact.
MOSCOW – A senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia could not ratify the 
