The last year administrative reform in Russia ignored the environmental problems again, while the Russian nuclear industry received more power. The Federal Agency on Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Control, which is subordinated to the Prime Minister Fradkov, received several important functions, including environmental expertise of the industrial sites. It is no reason to believe that the Russian State Environmental expertise follows the Russian and international environmental requirements, the Ecodefense group believes. It is just enough to read the biography of the acting director of the Federal Agency on Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Control, former deputy chief of the Russian Nuclear Ministry, Andrey Malyshev.

”This is a complete absurd. A supervising body should control the activity of the industry and federal agencies, but not conduct state expertise of the industry projects. Uniting these two functions gives a perfect opportunity for corruption. We are appealing to the government to establish an agency, independent from any official interests, for conducting state environmental expertise, or else the Russia’s natural resources will be soon wiped out” said co-chairman of the Ecodefense group Vladimir Slivyak. According to Slivyak, Malyshev protects the nuclear interests and has issued operating licenses for Chernobyl-type reactors, which exceeded their lifetime. Besides, Malyshev is known for creation structures inside the nuclear industry, which help to steel the budget money, he added.

In the end of 2003, the chairman of the security committee in the Russian State Duma Victor Ilukhin applied to the FSB (former KGB) with the parliamentary request regarding Malyshev’s alleged participation in the corruption inside the nuclear industry. The summary of the request about Andrey Malyshev’s activity and corruption in the Russian State Nuclear Regulatory, or GAN, and Rosenergoatom you can read on Antiatom.ru (in Russian)