ITAR-TASS News Agency, October 14, 2000
Over 2 Million Russians Urge Ecological Referendum
By Yuri Dorofeyev
Russian environmentalists have collected 2.5 million signatures in support
of a nationwide ecological referendum.
They plan to submit the following questions to the referendum: a ban on the
import of radioactive waste, the creation of a state forest protection
service, and the restoration of an independent state environmental
monitoring body.
Signature-collecting groups have been created in 62 regions of Russia. A
group of activists from Greenpeace and the public association Dialogue XXI
in St. Petersburg has engaged 500 volunteers to collect signatures. During
three months they collected 75,000 signatures and 10,000 in the Leningrad
region.
The St. Petersburg group ranks 30th in terms of the number of signatures
collected, Orenburg ranks first.
The lists of signatures will be handed over to regional election commissions
and the Central Election Commission for examination. After that, Central
Election Commission chairman Alexander Veshnyakov will ask the president to
consider holding a referendum.
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