Voicing his opposition to Russia’s adoption of the accord, Mr Illarionov said that it would strangle the Russian economy.

"The Kyoto Protocol is a death pact, however strange it may sound, because its main aim is to strangle economic growth and economic activity in countries that accept the protocol's requirements" he said, according to the Telegraph.

"At first, we wanted to call this agreement a kind of international Gosplan [the body which ran the Soviet economy]".

"Then we realised Gosplan was much more humane and we ought to call the Kyoto Protocol an international gulag. In the Gulag, though, you got the same ration daily and it didn't get smaller day by day. In the end, we had to call the Kyoto Protocol an international Auschwitz".

Aside from controversy, his comments are likely to worry EU diplomats who have been pressing Russia to sign up to the accords.

Russia’s signature is needed to bring Kyoto into force, as the US has said it will not sign up to the deal.

Kyoto aims to combat Climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions systematically.

The Russian president has not yet decided if Russia will fully sign up to the deal.