JUSTICE FOR ALEXANDR NIKITIN May 97

A Russian environmentalist faces imprisonment for warning the world of the potential nuclear disaster posed by Russia's aging and dangerous fleet of nuclear submarines. He has broken no law. Yet the Russian government is determined to silence him. They must not succeed...

In April 1997, former Russian naval Captain Alexandr Nikitin was awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize for Environmental Heroism for warning of the terrifying potential for nuclear disaster in Russia's polar seas. But Nikitin was not present at the prize giving ceremony in the USA. His government has forbidden him to leave Russia, and he is under criminal investigation. Yet according to the Russian constitution, Nikitin has broken no law, and committed no crime.

Nikitin's only offense was to cooperate with the Norwegian environmental group Bellona to produce an environmental report. This report details the potential for catastrophic contamination of the seas around Russia posed by leaking nuclear reactors in submarines. "Without international cooperation and financing", warns the report, "a grave situation could arise, which could be pictured as a Chernobyl in slow motion. If safety measures are not implemented, major accidents will be unavoidable."

Post-Soviet Russia cannot afford to maintain its massive nuclear fleet, so scores of ancient vessels with their rusting reactors are disintegrating in Russia's polar seas. There are over 100 nuclear submarines in Russia, and the seas between Russia and Norway contain the highest concentration of nuclear reactors in the world. The potential for catastrophe grows greater by the day.

For helping to bring attention to this fact, Nikitin should have been thanked. Instead, he faces prosecution and additional time in jail, and his report has the dubious honour of being the first publication to be banned in Russia since the fall of Communism.

The Russian Federal Security Service seem prepared to use almost any means to ensure that Nikitin is silenced. They want him in prison, and they want the truth that he has exposed kept from the world. In 1995, when they heard about the report that Nikitin was preparing with Bellona, they raided Bellona's Russian offices and confiscated everything. Four months later, they paid a pre-dawn visit to Nikitin's home and arrested him. They refused to tell him what his crime was. Instead, they put him in jail. He remained there for ten months, without trial, before he was released.

Nikitin's future is uncertain. He has still not been told what he is accused of. Amnesty International investigated his case and concluded that he has committed no crime.

Alexandr Nikitin wants the opportunity to clear his name in court. But he is worried that he will not receive a fair trial. He is demanding to know what he is charged with, and he is asking that his case be transferred to the Russian high court where he has more chance of an impartial trial. You can help ensure that Nikitin receives justice.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Please write to President Yeltsin of Russia. Tell him of your concern about the environmental threat exposed by Alexandr Nikitin and about the treatment Nikitin has received at the hands of the authorities. Ask him to meet his constitutional and international commitments to human rights and impartial justice. Urge him to inform Alexandr Nikitin of the charges against him, and to ensure him a fair trial by transferring his case to the Russian high court. Also urge President Yeltsin to seriously address the dangers exposed by Bellona's report on nuclear safety.

Write to:

President Boris Yeltsin
The Russian Federation
The Kremlin, Moscow
RUSSIA
Fax: (7) 095 206 5173

Send a copy of your letter to:

Yuri Skuratov
Russian General Procurator
B. Dmitrovka, 15a
103793 Moscow
RUSSIA
Fax: (7) 095 292 1779 or (7) 095 925 1879

Sample Letter to President Yeltsin

Dear President Yeltsin,

I am writing because I am extremely concerned about the fate of environmentalist Alexandr Nikitin.

According to your own constitution, Alexandr Nikitin has committed no crime. All he has done is to help publicize information obtained from open sources in Russia. That important information warns of the danger posed by Russia's aging fleet of nuclear submarines, not only to the people and environment of Russia, but to the wider world. The Bellona report, "The Russian Northern Fleet," should not be banned in Russia.

Alexandr Nikitin's basic rights have been violated by the treatment he has so far received from your government. He has been held in prison without charge for ten months, and now he faces future imprisonment without having been informed of his supposed crime. This contradicts your constitutional and international commitments to justice and freedom of information.

The Nikitin case is not merely an internal Russian matter. The issues he has raised affect the global environment, and his treatment is a cause for international concern.

I urge your government to seriously address the concerns raised by Alexandr Nikitin's report on Russian nuclear safety, and to meet your national and international commitments to human rights and impartial justice.

I also urge you to ensure that Alexandr Nikitin receives a fair trial, by informing him of the charges against him, and transferring his case to the General Procurator's Office of the Russian Federation.

I hope you will address this important matter. I look forward to hearing back from you what actions you have taken regarding this issue.

Yours sincerely,

BACKGROUND

Russia and its Environment

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, environmental issues have not been high on the priority list of the government of the new Russia. The collapse of its economy, and the massive task of rebuilding government and society has pushed other issues into the background. Yet the former Soviet Union was one of the worst abusers of the natural environment in the world. From its thirty-year arms race with the west has sprung a new set of threats with potentially disastrous implications for the people and the environment in Russia, of surrounding countries and of the entire world.

Much of Russia's enormous nuclear military establishment remains. But because of the state of Russian society, the military cannot afford to maintain all of these weapons and reactors in safe working order. The result is the very real threat of a nuclear accident in Russia, possibly rivalling the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986.

Russia's Nuclear Submarines

The Russian fleet of nuclear submarines is a case in point. During the Cold War arms race, the Soviet Union built and operated a large fleet of nuclear powered submarines. Most of these patrol the Barents Sea, between Russia and Norway. As a result, the Kola Peninsula, adjacent to the Norwegian border along the Barents Sea, today has the highest concentration of nuclear reactors in the world. Eighteen percent of all the world's nuclear reactors are located there. At present, Russia owns 52 retired submarines still containing nuclear fuel, along with 67 nuclear submarines still in operation. The scale and pace of the arms race meant that no plans were made for how to decommission these dangerous reactors. The present generation must now work out what to do with them.

Alexandr Nikitin and Bellona

The Norwegian environmental group Bellona was established in 1986 after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl drew the world's attention to the dangers of aging nuclear reactors in Russia. Bellona concentrates its activities on northwestern Russia, which borders Norway. It is in this area that submarine accidents, overburdened radioactive storage sites, submarines taken out of active service and the ocean dumping of nuclear waste have spurred fears of nuclear pollution. Bellona seeks to bring attention to these problems and to work towards solutions.

In 1995, Bellona began investigating the problem of the neglected Russian nuclear submarine fleet. It was concerned that the neglect it had suffered, the dire financial situation of the Russian military and the lack of real proposals for safe decommissioning of nuclear submarines could lead to the leak of nuclear materials into the seas around Russia and Norway. Such materials could then be carried elsewhere in the world by ocean currents. It is even possible that one of the reactors in the submarines could melt down, with disastrous consequences.

Bellona worked to prepare a report on the problem. In its research on the issue it received help from a retired Russian naval Captain, who was only too aware of the problems presented by Russia's submarines. Alexandr Nikitin gathered information for Bellona about the state of the submarines, which they used to prepare the report. The information he gave to them was in the public domain in Russia: none of it was classified. Furthermore, the Russian Federal Law on State Secrets, adopted in 1993, contains provisions saying that no information on the condition of the environment, or on extraordinary incidents and catastrophes that may endanger human life, can be classified as state secrets. In other words, what Alexandr Nikitin did was not illegal.

But the Russian secret police thought otherwise. In October 1996, just after Bellona's report-"The Russian Northern Fleet"-was published, the Federal Security Service (FSB) raided Bellona's Russian office and confiscated all materials being used to prepare it. They impounded copies of the report and banned members of Bellona from entering Russia. Then, four months later, they raided the home of Alexandr Nikitin. They arrested him, and threw him in jail. But he never knew what for.

The FSB were never able to come up with a crime to charge Nikitin with. They said he had violated secrecy laws, but they didn't tell him, or his lawyer, what those laws were. They just wanted him out of the way, and they wanted the state of Russia's submarine fleet covered up. While Nikitin was in jail, some Russian journalists who wrote about his case were fired. Nikitin might have stayed in prison without trial or charge forever had not an international campaign by NGOs, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the international environmental community, as well as, many individual Russians and Russian environmental and human rights groups, succeeded in putting pressure on the Russian government to treat Nikitin fairly. On 14 December last year, Nikitin was finally released, after 10 months and 8 days in jail.

But his ordeal is not over yet. Now he faces additional time in jail, still for unknown charges. After his ordeal, he is keen to clear his name in court, and prove he has not committed any crime. But he knows that the FSB are out to convict him at almost any cost, and he is worried that his trial will not be fair. His lawyer is demanding that he be informed of the charges against Nikitin before he is brought to court-if this doesn't happen, his trial will be little more than a farce. Nikitin also wants his case transferred to Russia's high court. He knows the officials who arrested him are anything but impartial, and wants Russia's General Procurator at the high court to try his case.

The Nikitin affair is a test case for the rule of law in the new Russia. It will determine whether Russian citizens are able to exercise their democratic rights to protect their environment.

For more information, contact:

Bellona
Oslo, Norway
Phone: 47-22-38-24-10
Fax: 47-22-38-38-62
Email: bellona@sn.no
Web: www.grida.no/ngo/bellona/    

Sierra Club Human Rights and the Environment Campaign
Washington, D.C., USA
Phone: 1-202-675-6691
Fax: 1-202-547-6009
Email: stephen.mills@sierraclub.org
Web: www.sierraclub.org/human-rights

Both of these web sites have extensive information on these issues including more photos.