Russian Prime Minister and president-elect Vladimir Putin told a meeting of governors on Tuesday to give higher priority to environmental protection and conservation. “The loss of anything from the inventory of natural landmarks” is the governors’ “moral responsibility,” he said. He underscored the importance of environmental projects coordinated by the Russian Geographic Society in 80 regions of the Russian Federation. The amount of pollutants discharged into the atmosphere in Russia in 2010 was 19.1 million tons, 0.1 million tons more than in 2009.