In Russia, government-backed wolf exterminations have been largely discontinued since the fall of the Soviet Union. As a result, their numbers have stabilized and are increasing, though they are still hunted legally. According to Alexander Tikhonov, head of the Department of Hunting Resources "the more wolves you have, the more problems there are". His department currently licenses a national bag limit of up to 14,000 wolves annually, with permits given to hunt even within nature reserves. Currently, Russia is the only nation where poison is legally used to kill wolves. The government licensed a fluorine-acetate-barium compound and distributed it through hunting associations.