VIP hunters including senior Russian officials and wealthy businessmen appear increasingly keen to target protected animals and areas across the country — efforts that, when combined with poor government oversight, could threaten the survival of the country’s rare wildlife, experts told The Moscow Times. “Since the tsarist era, hunting has been seen in Russia as an elite form of relationship building. Bringing a high-ranking official on a hunt is prestigious and beneficial,” said a Russian environmental expert who requested anonymity due to their affiliation with a group targeted by the author…