ENVIRONMENTAL whistle-blowers in Russia can breathe easier this week.
Alexandr Nikitin, a former naval officer who documented Russian nuclear
submarine accidents, has had his acquittal for treason upheld by the country鈥檚
highest court. Although the decision could protect other Russian investigators,
the authorities are finding new ways to crack down on them.
Nikitin was arrested in 1996 for helping to compile a report for the
Norwegian environmental group Bellona on pollution and mismanagement in Russia鈥檚 Northern Fleet
(New 杏吧原创, 20 April 1996, p 4). The FSB鈥攖he
successor to the KGB鈥攃laimed that details of 17 submarine accidents were
state secrets. When Nikitin proved his information came from public sources, the
FSB declared the information to be secret retroactively.
The Russian constitution prohibits environmental information being kept
secret, however, and successive appeal courts over the past four years acquitted
Nikitin. But the state prosecutor kept trying to overturn their decision until
Russia鈥檚 Supreme Court upheld the acquittal last week.
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Ironically, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk last month may have
contributed to this outcome. In hearings last December, Nikolai Mormul, a
retired Russian admiral, testified for Nikitin that secrecy about such accidents
put submarines at risk. Public outrage over the initial secrecy surrounding the
sinking of the Kursk could have influenced the judges, according to Alexei
Yablokov of the private Centre for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, and
one-time environmental adviser to ex-president Boris Yeltsin.
Nikitin鈥檚 case means environmental information can no longer be made secret
retroactively. 鈥淭his will have an enormously positive effect on the Russian
scientific community,鈥� says Yablokov. 鈥淚t gives us hope that we will now have
some protection from the law.鈥�
This precedent may help other environmentalists facing the wrath of the
authorities. Prosecutors are preparing to appeal against the acquittal of Navy
journalist Grigory Pasko, who was charged with treason for reporting the dumping
of radioactive waste by Russia鈥檚 Pacific Fleet.
But Yablokov is still worried. 鈥淭he FSB are really angry now,鈥� he says, and
adds that over the past year Russian environmental organisations have been
questioned by police and suffered hostile financial scrutiny. He fears
disruption caused by these measures may prove as effective a threat as charges
of espionage or treason.