ussian Environmental Digest (REDfiles) is a compilation of the week's
major English-language press on environmental issues in Russia.
15 - 21 May 2000, Vol. 2, No. 20
1. V. Putin Signs Decree Abolishing State Committee for Environmental
Protection (Goskomekologiia)
2. Europe's Wasted Aid
3. Russia Must Set Up National System To Keep Track of Nuclear Materials
4. Russia Draws Up Nuclear Submarine-Building Programme
5. Fires Near Chernobyl Could Pollute Atmosphere Again
6. Factory Makes Radioactive Waste Containers
7. Service Life of Russian Nuclear-powered Ice-breakers To Stretch
8. Russian, Norwegian Ministers Hold Talks on Nuclear Safety
9. Russian, Norwegian Foreign Ministers To Discuss Utilization of Russian
Nuclear Subs
10. Estonia, Russia Restoring Fishery Resources in Narva River
11. Radioactive Container Stolen in Siberia
12. U.S. Planned Nuclear Attack on Moon To Scare Soviets
1 V. Putin Signs Decree Abolishing State Committee for Environmental
Protection (Goskomekologiia) RIA OREANDA, May 19, 2000, Moscow
The President of the Russian Federation V. Putin has signed the Decree
"On the Structure of the Federal Bodies of the Executive Authority".
The press-service of the President has published the full text of the
decree:
"With the view to form the effective structure of the federal bodies
of the executive authority, according to Article 112 of the
Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal Constitutional
law "On the government of the Russian Federation," I decree:
1. To confirm the enclosed structure of the federal bodies of the
executive authority.
2. To abolish: The Ministry for the affairs of the Commonwealth of the
Independent States; the Ministry for the science and technologies; the
Ministry for Commerce; Economy Ministry; the State committee for the
problems of the North; the State committee for land policy; the State
committee for cinematography; the State committee for environmental
protection; the State committee for the problems of youth; the federal
service of the air transport of Russia; the federal Migration
department; the federal department of Russia for the currency and
export control; the Russian road agency.
3. To form: The Ministry for the economic development and commerce of
Russia having delegated to it a part of the functions of the abolished
Ministries for the affairs of CIS, Commerce, Economy, the State
committee for the problems of the North; the federal service for the
currency and export control and reformed Ministry for the physical
training, sport and tourism; the Ministry of Industry, science and
technologies having delegated to it the functions of the abolished
Ministry of science and technologies and also a part of the functions
of the abolished Ministries for Commerce and Economy; the federal
service of the land-survey having delegated to it a part of the
functions of the abolished State committee for the land policy.
4. To delegate: to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a part of the
functions of the abolished Ministry for the Affairs of CIS; to the
Ministry of culture the functions of the abolished State committee for
the cinematography; to the Ministry of Education the functions of the
abolished State committee for the problems of youth; to the Ministry
of natural resources the functions of the abolished State committee
for environmental protection and federal service of the forestry; to
the Transport Ministry the functions of the abolished federal service
of the air transport and road agency; to the Finance Ministry a part
of the functions of the abolished federal service for the currency and
export control.
5. To reform: The Ministry of the state property to the Ministry
privity having delegated to it a part of the functions of the
abolished state committee for the land policy; the Ministry of
physical training, sport and tourism to the State committee for the
physical training, sport and tourism; the Ministry for the affairs of
the federation and nationalities to the Ministry for the Affairs
Federation, national and migration policy having delegated to it a
part of the functions of the abolished federal migration service and a
part of the functions of the abolished state committee for the
problems of the North; the Agriculture and Food Ministry to the
Ministry for Agriculture; the Ministry of fuel and energy to the
Ministry of energetic. The state courier service attached to the
government of Russia to the State courier service; the federal service
for the special building attached to the government to the federal
service of the special building.
6. To determine that the Chairman of government has 5 deputies
including the deputy Chairman of the government - Minister of
Agriculture and deputy Chairman of the government - Finance Minister.
7. To determine that the co-ordination of the work of the federal
Ministers, heads of other federal bodies of the executive authority
and the control over their activity are realized by the Chairman of
the government and his deputies according to the allocation of the
responsibilities between the deputies Chairman of the government. To
determine that in case the Chairman of the government is absent
temporally, the fulfilment of his responsibilities is laid upon one of
his deputies according to the allocation of the responsibilities.
8. The government of Russia is to allocate the functions of the
abolished federal bodies of the executive authority depending on the
Clauses of the present decree within a month; to confirm the
instructions about the newly formed and reformed federal bodies of the
executive authority within 2 months; to confirm the ultimate number
and the wage fund of the members of the central staff of the federal
bodies of the executive authority within a month; to provide for the
holding of the liquidation procedures and rendering the facilities and
compensations to the dismissed members according to the legislation of
Russia; to submit the proposals on the introduction of the
corresponding alterations to the acts of the President about the
federal bodies of the executive authority within a month; to bring the
acts into accord with the present decree.
9. The Chief state and legal department of the President is to submit
the proposals on bringing the acts of the President into accord with
the present decree within 2 months.
10. The present decree comes into effect from the date of its
publishing.
Decree no. 867, signed on 17 May 2000
(back to top)
2 Europe's Wasted Aid The Economist, May 20, 2000
Two cheers for Chris Patten, the European commissioner for external
relations. One cheer is for saying out loud this week what a shambles
the European Union's aid programmes have become. The second is for
proposing a plausible scheme for improving matters. It will be time
for the third and biggest cheer, if and when the plan brings the
intended results.
When Mr Patten moved to Brussels last year, he inherited an aid budget
of 10 billion a year (then worth $10.5 billion) that had all but spun
out of control. It had tripled in size over the previous ten years,
but the European Commission had not added the staff to manage it
properly. Money was paid out too late to be of use, or to the wrong
place, or never paid at all.
Celebrated black spots included:
Russia and the former Soviet Union, where EU money has often benefited
only consultants and middlemen. From 1990 to 1997, the EU dished out
355m for nuclear safety programmes. Auditors said last year it was
"not possible to quantify the scale of these programmes or how far
they had been implemented".
The southern Mediterranean, where the commission seems to have
promised money almost at random. If the EU stopped approving new money
today, it would still need almost nine years, at the present rate, to
pay out the sums it has already pledged.
Gaza, where the EU paid 32m towards a showpiece hospital, which has
stood empty for a year because nobody thought to budget for staff and
equipment.
Mr Patten's plan consists mainly of demanding the additional staff
needed to do the job properly. If governments and the European
Parliament refuse him, he will propose cutting aid programmes to fit
the staff available. And he wants to hand overall management of aid to
a new "office", which might one day be "floated out" of the commission
itself.
Good luck to him. And if it works? Then put him in charge of the
common agricultural policy next.
(back to top)
3 Russia Must Set Up National System To Keep Track of Nuclear
Materials Interfax News Agency, May 17, 2000
Russia will eventually have to set up a national system to report,
control and physically protect nuclear materials at a cost of hundreds
of millions of dollars, First Deputy Atomic Energy Minister Valentin
Ivanov told a briefing in Moscow on Wednesday.
At the moment, not even plans for such a system exist, but when the
necessary funds are available it will be created, he said.
The ministry has been spending $5 million to $10 million annually on
improving reporting, control and protection of nuclear materials,
Ivanov said.
(back to top)
4 Russia Draws Up Nuclear Submarine-Building Programme BBC Summary of
World Broadcasts, May 20, 2000
In the next few days the Russian government is expected to issue a
resolution on developing Russia's marine strategic nuclear-missile
forces that will allow it to draft projects for the main classes of
missile submarines, some of which will be built at Russian shipyards
[as received], and start serial production after the year 2005.
Russian navy Chief of Main Staff Adm Viktor Kravchenko told RIA this
today.
He said work currently continues to build a new generation of missile
subs. In particular, the Yuriy Dolgorukiy sub under construction at
the Severodvinskiy yard is 47 per cent ready. Kravchenko said all
problems related to building missile subs would be eliminated if the
navy is given 25-27 per cent of the Defence Ministry budget. However,
he said, only 12 per cent of what is needed to build the marine
strategic nuclear-missile forces has been set aside, which is causing
major problems.
Kravchenko said work is also under way to repair and refit
nuclear-missile cruiser submarines due for an intermediate servicing.
The Delfin BDRM-class submarine has been brought back into service.
The navy command intends to use this class, of which there are six, as
the basis of navy strategy up to the year 2015.
Kravchenko said claims that the dismantling of Russian nuclear
sub-marines is being financed by the American Nunn-Lugar programme do
not correspond to reality. So far 41 subs have been dismantled and
only three were destroyed using American money. The other missile and
multi-purpose subs were all taken apart using Russian budget money.
Since the start of the 1980s, the navy has taken 168 nuclear
submarines out of service.
The Russian navy is currently carrying out the tasks set in line with
the approved basis of Russian policy in the field of navy activity to
the year 2010, which was put into force 4th May this year by Russian
President Vladimir Putin's decree On the Russian Federation's modern
marine activity.
(back to top)
5 Fires Near Chernobyl Could Pollute Atmosphere Again Agence France
Presse, May 19, 2000
Forest and peat fires are threatening to creep close to the stricken
Chernobyl power station and drive dangerous radioactive elements in
the contaminated area around it back into the atmosphere, authorities
said Friday.
At least three forest and peat fires have ravaged slightly radioactive
areas south and east of Chernobyl, scene of the world's worst civilian
nuclear disaster,they said.
Any fire inside the heavily contaminated area around the stricken
plant could propel radioactive elements into the air and cause a new
threat to the environment and nearby inhabitants.
Firefighters have been struggling near Ivankiv, some 60 kilometres
(approx 30 miles) south of Chernobyl, to prevent a peat fire reaching
the off-limits, highly radioactive area around the power station.
Areas with a radius of 30 kilometres around Chernobyl were evacuated
after the catastrophe in which number four reactor exploded in April
1986.
A further peat fire has been burning since May 11 near Vishgorod, 100
kilometres away. Firefighters have isolated the area, reducing the
fire zone from 15 to five hectares (37 to 12 acres.)
"We're in control of the situation and there is no cause for concern,"
said an emergencies ministry spokeswoman.
Fire has ravaged more than 428,000 hectares (about one million acres)
of forest in Russia's far east, including Siberia, according to the
national emergencies ministry.
The situation is particularly bad in eastern Siberia, in the Irkutsk
and Chita regions, where more than 50 fires have swept across 93,000
hectares.
(back to top)
6 Factory Makes Radioactive Waste Containers BBC Summary of World
Broadcasts, May 19, 2000
Severodvinsk, Northern Russia, 11th May: The local Zvezdochka
machine-building plant has made the first 1,000 containers for storing
and transporting slow-acting solid radioactive waste, a spokesman for
the plant administration said on Thursday [11th May].
The containers, with a capacity of 6.5 t each, will be transported to
the Northern Fleet in the near future, the spokesman told the Military
News Agency. The containers are built in accordance with the Arctic
military environmental cooperation (AMEC), a Russian-US-Norwegian
programme which envisages, among other issues, the reduction of
environmental threats in the Arctic region by means of storing safely
and salvaging radioactive waste produced by combat ships of the
Northern Fleet. The project is financed by the United States, the
spokesman noted.
Zvezdochka, which specializes in repairing nuclear submarines of the
Russian Navy, had to win an international tender to receive the order
for containers. A US-Norwegian delegation that visited the plant
earlier this week confirmed the high quality of its products, the
spokesman said. According to foreign experts, the containers built by
Zvezdochka fully correspond to the norms of the International Atomic
Energy Agency.
The AMEC envisages construction of 1,300 containers for slow-acting
solid radioactive waste.
(back to top)
7 Service Life of Russian Nuclear-powered Ice-breakers To Stretch
ITAR-TASS News Agency, May 19, 2000
Russian nuclear-powered ice- breakers can be used for 30-35 years
instead of the initially planned 25, said speakers at a scientific
conference in Murmansk that marked a jubilee of the Arktika vessel.
The Arktika, the first vessel of a new series of nuclear- powered
ice-breakers, has proven to have a high technical class and a durable
nuclear reactor over the 25 years of its existence. The reactor has
been used for about 100,000 hours and remains in a perfect technical
condition. Academician Nikolai Khlopkin believes that the service life
of the Arktika can be extended for five years minimum without
assigning large funds for the modernization.
Mechanisms of nuclear-powered ice-breakers are reliable and capable of
further smooth operation and radiation safety, speakers at the
conference said.
(back to top)
8 Russian, Norwegian Ministers Hold Talks on Nuclear Safety BBC
Summary of World Broadcasts, May 20, 2000
The Russian and Norwegian foreign ministers, Igor Ivanov and
Thorbjoern Jagland, held talks today during which they discussed
nuclear safety.
The latter said "these issues are very important to Norway, especially
in the context of the signing of the intergovernmental agreement on
environmental protection connected to the scrapping of Russian nuclear
submarines, and the tripartite agreement on military cooperation
between Russia, Norway and the USA".
The ministers discussed cooperation in the sphere of oil and gas, as
well as fisheries. Igor Ivanov said the accent had been placed on
cooperation in trade.
Relations with Russia are one of the main priorities in Norway's
foreign policy, Thorbjoern Jagland said, adding that specific steps
had already been taken in this direction and extra funding had been
allocated for cooperation with Russia.
(back to top)
9 Russian, Norwegian Foreign Ministers To Discuss Utilization of
Russian Nuclear Subs Interfax News Agency, May 17, 2000
The Russian and Norwegian foreign ministers will meet in Moscow on
Thursday to discuss ways to put the decommissioned Russian nuclear
submarines based off the Kola peninsula to use.
This issue is especially important for all of Europe, as well as for
Russia and Norway, Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjorn Jagland said
at a Wednesday news conference in Murmansk, in response to an Interfax
question.
Jagland has raised these issues during his meetings with EU officials
and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the foreign minister
said.
Jagland also spoke about issues that worry Russia: notably, the
construction of the Globus radar station at Vardo for early detection
of ballistic missile launches, and that of a runway on Svalbard Island
that can be used by military transport planes. The radar station will
be manned entirely by Norwegians and will not be part of any U.S.
missile attack early warning system, he stressed.
(back to top)
10 Estonia, Russia Restoring Fishery Resources in Narva River Baltic
News Service, May 15, 2000
A meeting of the Estonian-Russian fisheries working group will take
place in St. Petersburg from Monday to Wednesday, to discuss
organization of salmon fishing in the Narva River and joint
restoration of salmon resources.
Over the past year, about 140,000 salmon fry have been released in the
Narva River - 40,000 by Estonia and 100,000 by Russia, Enno Kobakene
from the Environment Ministry fishing department told BNS.
It is impossible to say how many salmon there are in the river at
present, as most of the salmon cannot spawn in the river because of
the hydroelectic power plant dam.
"Maybe ten percent of the salmon released into the river have been
able to spawn, at any rate, there should be enough salmon in the Narva
at present," Kobakene said.
"The possibilities are small that the released fry will multiply
naturally, so it would be expedient to fish them out of the river,"
Kobakene said.
The Russian side has banned salmon fishing in the Narva River. The
Estonian Environment Ministry is trying to convince the Russians that
salmon fishing in the river should be permitted. He said fishing in a
border river must be internationally regulated.
Poachers fish for salmon in the Narva River anyway and so it would be
more expedient to issue official licenses to amateur fishermen.
(back to top)
11 Radioactive Container Stolen in Siberia Agence France Presse, May
20, 2000
A radioactive container of caesium-137 was stolen by unknown thiefs
from a factory in Siberia, the AVN military news agency reported
Friday, citing the Russian emergency situations ministry.
The container weighed some 85 kilos (187 pounds) and the Federal
Security Service (FSB, ex-KGB) and interior ministry have opened an
inquiry.
(back to top)
12 U.S. Planned Nuclear Attack on Moon To Scare Soviets The Ottawa
Citizen, May 18, 2000
The United States considered detonating an atom bomb on the moon
during the late 1950s as a demonstration of the nation's Cold War
might, a Chicago physicist says.
The secret project, innocuously titled A Study of Lunar Research
Flights, was never carried out.
But its planning included calculations by famed astronomer Carl Sagan
-- then a young graduate student -- of the behaviour of the dust and
gas generated by the blast.
Viewing the nuclear flash from Earth might have intimidated the Soviet
Union and boosted Americans' confidence after the launch of Sputnik,
physicist Leonard Reiffel said yesterday. He directed the inquiry at
the former Armour Research Foundation, now part of the Illinois
Institute of Technology.
''Now it seems ridiculous and unthinkable,'' said Mr. Reiffel, 72, who
later served as a deputy director at NASA during the Apollo program.
''But things were remarkably tense back then.''
Mr. Sagan went on to become a worldwide celebrity for popularizing
science on television. He died in 1996. Mr. Reiffel described the plan
in a letter in the May 4 issue of the scientific journal Nature.
Nature published a review of two Sagan biographies. The author of one
of the books suggested that Mr. Sagan breached security in 1959 by
revealing the classified project in an application for an academic
fellowship. Mr. Reiffel concurred that Mr. Sagan probably released
classified information.
The exchange in the scientific journal inadvertently shines a
spotlight on a period when science in the U.S. was greatly influenced
by Cold War politics.
The U.S. space program was sputtering while the Soviet Union had
launched Sputnik and a pair of lunar probes.
The Eisenhower administration considered the lunar blast as a way to
reassure Americans the Soviet threat could be countered, while
demonstrating to the Kremlin that the United States had an effective
nuclear deterrent.
Under the scenario, a missile carrying a small nuclear device was to
be launched from an undisclosed location and travel 238,000 miles to
the moon, where it would be detonated upon impact. The planners
decided it would have to be an atom bomb because a hydrogen bomb would
have been too heavy for the missile.
Mr. Reiffel said the nation's young space program probably could have
carried out the mission by 1959, when the Air Force deployed
intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Military officials apparently abandoned the idea because of the danger
to people on Earth in case of a failure.
The Air Force has declined to comment on the project, pending a review
of historical records.
(back to top)
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