Recently, Russia changed its position and announced its intention to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.  But is such a move based on science,  or rather on political and economic concerns?  Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute postulates the latter.  Comments Horner: “This is the fourth Russian promise to ratify Kyoto, though to date, it still has not actually done so. Instead, a cagy President Putin is extracting concessions from the European Union, ranging from EU support for Russian membership in the World Trade Organization to giving them ways to briefly make money under Kyoto.  Putin’s advisors flat state, however, they might ratify it but purely as a symbolic gesture to gain EU assistance on other fronts.”