News
Publish date: October 24, 2008
News
Karina Moskalenko, Russia’s leading human rights lawyer fell ill in the French city of Strasbourg, and traces of mercury were found in her car. Moskalenko shares a home in Strasbourg with her husband and two children, and where she tries cases against the Russian government in the European Court of Human Rights.
She and members of her family were treated for nausea and headaches.
But a French prosecutor says it seems the mercury came from a broken thermometer or barometer, and was spilled by the car’s previous owner, the BBC reported.
The vehicle was bought last August by Moskalenko’s husband from an antique dealer who used it to carry his wares.
On investigation, it turned out that an old thermometer or barometer had been broken accidentally during a journey, the BBC quoted French officials as saying.
Moskalenko’s clients include the jailed former Russian oil tycoon, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and the family of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
Fears had been aroused that she had been subject to an attack similar to the one that killed former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko – also a former client of Mosklenko’s – in London in 2006.
An accident aboard numerous Volgoneft oil tankers in the Kerch in mid December clearly show what can happen to aged ships when they are operated in bad weather—and when economic and military objectives are prioritized over the lives of crews and environmental safety.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
A visit last week by Vladimir Putin and a Kremlin entourage to Astana, Kazakhstan sought in part to put Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear corporation, on good footing with local officials.