Rosneft to finance polar bear studies
© RIA Novosti. Maksim Blinov

Rosneft to finance polar bear studies

Oil giant Rosneft will spend 74 million rubles on polar bear studies until 2020, the company's Vice President for Industrial/Work Safety and Environment, Pavel Rassadkin, told TASS news agency.

"In 2014-2015, 53 million rubles was spent on studying polar bears. In 2016-2020, Rosneft is planning to spend at least 74 million rubles on this project," he noted.

Polar bear populations in the Arctic have already been studied, he noted. For this purpose, experts tagged the animals with special collars and also took samples of their fur, fat and blood for toxicological and genetic tests.

Mr. Rassadkin added that the company was focusing on plant and animal studies. For example, members of the Kara Winter 2015 research expedition conducted biological studies and monitored the marine mammal and bird populations.