Officials in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia have publicly denounced activists seeking to block a controversial bill that would ease logging restrictions along the shores of Lake Baikal, the Govorit NeMoskva news outlet reported Monday. In an open letter, 34 regional officials, including six mayors, accused environmental activists of waging a cyberbullying campaign and inciting “inter-social conflicts between the peoples of Baikal and the rest of Russia,” according to excerpts from the letter published by Govorit NeMoskva. Introduced in Russia’s lower house of parliament this year, fresh amendments to the country’s law on the protection of Lake Baikal a UNESCO World Heritage site seek to permit logging on as many as 75 plots of shoreland with a combined area of 762 hectares. While the bill’s backers say it will allow for a long-overdue development of basic infrastructure in the many remote towns and villages on the lake, ecologists believe it woul