Polar bear slaughtered for 50 litres of gasoline

Two men were detained and face up to three years in jail if convicted of killing the bear, then trading its skin for gasoline. 

A resident of Varnek in Nenets Autonomous Region slaughtered the bear last year on Vaygach Island, on the western edge of Siberia in the Arctic Sea between the Pechora Sea and the Kara Sea.

A criminal case was opened on 16 May.

Experts from environmental organisation WWF say that annually between 10 and 15 polar bears are shot on the island. 

Skins are then sold on to Moscow and St Petersburg via Karataika village, Naryan-Mar and Vorkuta. The final cost of the skin amounted 1.5 - 2 million roubles. 

The final selling price is around $30,500, up to ten times the amount earned by poachers. WWF activists have cooperated with the FSB security service and police to counter poaching on the island.