At least 14 people have been killed by bears in Russia in 2025, according to a tally by The Moscow Times
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NEED TO KNOW
- Bear attacks in Russia have killed at least 14 people in 2026, according to a tally by The Moscow Times
- At least six fatalities occurred in the Krasnoyarsk region in the past month, officials said, CBS News/AFP reported
- Prosecutors accuse local officials of negligence, citing failure to control the growing brown bear population, which has reached nearly 308,000 in 2026
Bear attacks have killed at least six people in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, officials said.
A 66-year-old woman was killed by a bear in a remote village in the region on Sept. 16, according to The Moscow Times, citing investigators.
Her death came amid a rise in bear attacks in 2026, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources reports, according to TASS. Typically, around 20 to 30 people are killed in bear attacks, but at the time of publication, There have been at least 14 people killed by bears this year so far, according to a tally by The Moscow Times.
On Sept. 16, a 55-year-old and a 65-year-old were fatally attacked while foraging for berries in Taiga, in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, according to The Moscow Times.
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Prosecutors accuse local officials of failing to control bear numbers and allege criminal negligence, CBS News/AFP reported.
Despite numerous warnings, local officials “failed to take measures to regulate the predator population or prevent them from appearing in areas inhabited by people,” the Investigative Committee of Russia said of the Krasnoyarsk and Khakassia regions.
Dmitry Buchenik, deputy head of the Khakassia region, said on Sept. 23 that the small town Abaza was surrounded by bears.
“It was an alarming night in Abaza. The taiga town is effectively under siege by bears,” Buchenik said, CBS News/AFP reported. “Some of the animals were chased off, but three were killed (one of them was huge).”
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has dismissed reports that the number of bear attacks has risen in 2026. They noted the average number of deaths from bear attacks in a full calendar year is between 20 and 30, TASS reports. Russia also saw a record 166 bear attacks in 2014, The Moscow Times reported.
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Since 1990, Russia’s brown bear population has increased from 130,000 to almost 308,000 in 2026, Russia’s natural resources ministry said, CBS News/AFP reported.
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