News
Publish date: June 22, 1997
News
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Yevgeni Primakov dodged the issue of constitutional rights of Russian democratic activist at the Denver G-7 summit in Denver yesterday.
Questioned on the issue of Russian environmentalist Alexandr Nikitin, who has been charged with secret laws under the Soviet legal system, Primakov refused to make any reference to the Constitution of the "New Russia" which explicitly prohibits such procedures. Nikitin is currently awaiting a final decision on whether he will be tried for crimes he has not even been informed of.
–If the Western democraties accept Russia in their midst, they should assure that Yeltsin is able to assure the rule of law and democracy in his nation, said Thomas Jandl, director of Bellona USA. –But fortunately there is opposition to the U.S. Administration’s cheerleading for Russia’s membership at the G-7, particulary from France and Japan.
Nikitin co-authored a report of the Bellona Foundation which describes the worldwide dangers posed by unsafe storage of nuclear waste in northwestern Russia.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.