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Sergei Ivanov also visited the site where the administrative building of the Land of the Leopard National Part is being built and met with environmental staff, veterinaries and management of the Primorye Border Administration of the Russian Federal Security Service.

The meeting discussed, in particular, the situation in the national park after the commissioning of the road tunnel on its territory. Mr Ivanov was told that very soon the animals would use the territory over the tunnel as a transit zone, and the Chief of Staff asked to keep this under control.

The meeting participants asked Sergei Ivanov to help them with settling the issues pertaining to interaction with their Chinese colleagues. In particular, it concerns more active mutual participation in the study of leopards as many animals regularly cross the Russian-Chinese border.

Also, the Primorye researchers are concerned with their Chinese colleagues’ plans to start the mass trapping of leopards to fit radio tracking device. The Russian experts believe that the process might seriously harm the animals, and they want to warn their Chinese colleagues.

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The Narva road tunnel is located on the section of the Khasan-Razdolnoye motorway in Primorye that crosses the Land of the Leopard National Park. The tunnel was built as part of the leopard preservation programme supervised by Mr Ivanov. The project made it possible to move the road traffic that intersected the leopard’s migration paths into the tunnel.