TURKMENBASHI /Turkmenistan/, October 9. /TASS/. Russia supports development of a special protocol under the Tehran Convention, President Vladimir Putin said at the Caspian Environmental Summit.

The recent environmental challenges require elaboration of collective steps to preserve the Caspian Sea ecosystem, the head of state said. The potential of already existing international agencies should be utilized as much as possible for that, including in particular the Conference of the Tehran Convention Parties, he noted.

"Russia also supports development of a special protocol on Caspian Sea monitoring under the Tehran Convention. In our opinion, such document would help in making more systemic the exchange of information not merely on the shrinking but across the entire broad range of other environmental risks, and set the mechanism of responding to them," Putin added.