News
Publish date: September 7, 1998
Written by: Thomas Jandl
News
Congressman David Skaggs, a Colorado Democrat, called a special meetingduring the ongoing CSCE meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, on July 8 topress the Russian delegates on the fate of Russian environmentalistAleksandr Nikitin.
Almost the entire 17-member U.S. delegation attended an hour-longmeeting with their Russian Duma counterparts. The meeting was part ofSkaggs ongoing campaign to shore up support for Nikitin in the U.S.Congress.
At the meeting, Skaggs raised the issues of human rights and rule oflaw. While nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky downplayed theimportance of the case, the Speaker of the Russian Duma, GennadySeleznev, promised he would order his staff to look into the matter.
Skaggs was pleased with the outcome of the meeting. Its not unexpectedthat the Russians would be reluctant to acknowledge immediately theproblems in the prosecution of Captain Nikitin, but its somewhatencouraging that the Speaker of the Russian Duma agreed to have theappropriate staff look into the matter.
The meeting showed a significant number of Russian lawmakers thecontinued U.S. interest in the two-and-half year old case. It is alsolikely to have increased awareness of the importance of the issue amongthe U.S. delegates, some of whom have not previously followed the caseclosely.
Another delegate, Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, had raisedthe case with former Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin duringhis last visit to the United States.
At present, a number of large civic organizations are pressing VicePresident Al Gore to follow the congressional lead and raise the issuepublicly and forcefully with new Prime Minister Sergey Kiriyenko duringthe first meeting of the new Gore/Kiriyenko Commission in late July.Letters to that avail were sent to Gore by the New York Academy ofSciences, the American Chemical Society, the Committee of Concerned Scientists, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews and other NGOs andcivic organizations, representing more than half a million Americans.
A drive for support from the U.S. Bar Association, the largestorganization of lawyers, is under way, following the harassment ofNikitins lawyer by secret police.
Skaggs has circulated three Dear Colleague letters in the House ofRepresentatives, signed by more than 30 U.S. Representatives of bothparties. And he is not done yet: I will continue to press thisvigorously, as will other members of Congress.
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.