Russian Environmentalists Statement At Kiev International Environmental Forum

The cold war legacy, consequences of nuclear power development without consideration of the environmental security, accidents at the facilities of nuclear fuel cycle, enormous amount of accumulated and new radioactive waste, unprecedented radioactive contamination are the most difficult for the solution environmental problems in Russia. To solve them, efforts of the government and NGOs must be consolidated. Instead, what we see in Russia, environmentalists, who make information about radioactive contamination open for public, and who defend public interests, are pursued and prosecuted by the authorities, particularly by the local authorities.

One case is of our most concern. In September 2006 Krasnoyarsk regional charity organization The Citizen Center for Nuclear Non Proliferation (CCNNP), headed by Vladimir Mikheev, discovered the hot particles - very small particles with the high level of radioactivity, basically from the once-through reactors - in the village Bol'shoy Balchug, located on the Enisey river bank downstream the weapons plutonium production facility Krasnoyarsk Mining Chemical Combine (MCC). The CCNNP expert Vitaly Khizhnyak who made the measurements, is a former Nuclear Control Agency (Gosatomnadzor) inspector with the high level of expertise. Taking all the necessary precautionary measures, Mikheev and Khizhnyak put the sample of contaminated soil into the special lead-made container and handed it to the facility licensed for storage and management of radioactive waste. Soon after this Vladimir Mikheev and his organization were literally pursued by the procurators, Krasnoyarsk Chapter of the Registration Chamber and tax authorities. Procurators made attempts to initiate the criminal case against them three times, but what they managed to reach, was to fine Vladimir and his Center "for illegal management and transportation of radioactive waste". At the same time the state owned media started a campaign against Mikheev and his Center's activity.
For many years Mikheev has been a member of the Coordination Council on Nuclear and Radiation Safety under the governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, and Khizhnyak has been its secretary. But since September 2007 they have not been even invited to the Council meetings.

The Yenisei river is contaminated in the distance of 1,500 km, up its mouth in the Kara Sea in the Arctic. Therefore it is not a national, but a global problem.

We consider prosecution of the environmentalists, who work hard to protect the public interests to be unacceptable.
We find strange and politically incorrect accuses of the state owned TV channels Krasnoyarsk GTRK and Enisey-Region, addressed to the CCNNP, in espionage and in attempts to make "the orange revolution" in Krasnoyarsk.
We draw the attention to the fact that environmental NGOs are fundamental for the civil society, construction of which is so supported by the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
We demand that prosecution of environmentalists must be stopped immediately.

Delegates of the 1st International Conference of the Eurasian Federation of the Greens: “Cooperation for Sustainable Development” (Kiev International Environmental Forum), held in Kiev on September 21-23, 2007, representing non-governmental and political organizations of 18 countries unanimously approve the statement of Russian environmentalists
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Krasnoyarsk Regional Public Charitable Organisation
“Civil Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation”, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Public Charitable Environmental Organisation “Zelenyi Mir”,
Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Delegates of the 1st International Conference of the Eurasian Federation of the Greens: “Cooperation for Sustainable Development”
(Kiev International Environmental Forum)