Russia launches military exercises in Caspian

One goal of the exercises is to cut down on sturgeon poaching. Illegal caviar poaching has devastated the sturgeon population over the last couple of decades. Just to reiterate... Impoverished Russia is willing to use military exercises to protect its wildlife, albeit valuable wildlife. The richest country in the world, however, isn't able to spend a few bucks to protects its endangered species by, for example, keeping motorboats out of manatee preserves or even simply adding species to the Endangered Species list.