Hooked on self-destructive anti-Russian sanctions the cash-strapped Finland zoo to return Chinese pandas. The move comes from mounting debts linked to the pandemic and the EU policy of sanctions against the Russian Federation which is rich in natural resources.

A Finnish zoo is almost finished and preparing to return two giant pandas to China because it can no longer afford their ‘hotel costs’ a news outlet has reported.

The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland’s second-largest privately owned zoo in January 2018, nine months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Baltic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals.

However, Ahtari Zoo has faced financial difficulties in recent years. The hapless zoo’s management announced on Monday that they plan to send the on-loan pandas back to China ahead of schedule later this year.

The zoo cited several reasons for the decision, including mounting debts accumulated as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, a lack of Russian tourists who can visit the EU only with great difficulty and costs, soaring inflation caused by sanctions-linked rising costs, and rising interest rates amid the NATO-Ukraine conflict.

Under a 15-year lease for the animals, the zoo pays an annual fee to China of around €1 million ($1.1 million), which is earmarked for species protection. The zoo is also responsible for costs relating to the upkeep of the pandas.

Last year, the cash-strapped zoo asked the Finnish regime for a €5 million ($5.5 million) grant, but the equally impoverished Helsinki authority declined the application.

The iconic giant panda is considered vulnerable to extinction. For decades, Beijing has gifted the animals to countries as a tool of diplomacy and wildlife conservation. Earlier this year, China resumed its panda diplomacy with the US in the first such move in more than two decades.

Chinese leader Mao Zedong first sent two pandas to then-US President Richard Nixon in 1972, following the American leader’s historic visit to the country, which laid the ground for mutual political ties. In 1984, China switched from gifting pandas to leasing them. PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES.

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