DIY shops across Europe are selling wood taken illegally from Russia’s far-east taiga region, where corruption is contributing to the rapid destruction of virgin forests, a report has claimed. More than 100,000 tonnes of lumber have entered Germany, France and other EU countries as part of one of Russia’s biggest illegal timber scandals, it is alleged. The business is in turn linked to two companies registered in the UK. The report, by the environmental group Earthsight, suggests trees in Siberia are being plundered at an alarming rate. …A timber conglomerate in the Khabarovsk Krai region is allegedly behind much of this illegal timber trade. The firm, the BM Group, denies wrongdoing. …EU and UK lawmakers are debating tougher rules to tackle Europe’s role in driving global deforestation through its consumption of wood and other “forest risk commodities”.