Logical move for Putin considering just about all of Russia’s foreign earnings come from oil and gas. He doesn’t want his gravy train grinding to a halt.
This is especially hilarious given that some areas of Russia are absolutely toxic to any form of life beyond bacteria, and will be so for hundreds to tens of thousands of years. One of the theories on why life expectancy in the former USSR is so short is that it is caused by industrial pollution.
The mining/production operation that produces a good part of the world’s platinum and palladium over there (for those green catalytic converters) also produces about 1% of the entire planet’s sulfur dioxide emissions.