British Broadcasting Corporation, December 02, 2000
Environmentalists To Appeal Decision on Radioactive Waste Referendum
Text of report by Russian NTV International television on 30th November
[Presenter] Representatives of the Greenpeace environmental organization organized a news
conference in Moscow today. They were protesting against the decision taken by the Central
Electoral Commission yesterday. Here are the details in a report from Olga Podkopayeva:
[Correspondent] There will be no environmental referendum - this is what the Central Electoral Commission decided yesterday. Russians were supposed to have replied to three questions: should radioactive waste from other states be banned from entering the country, is a federal centre for protection of the environment needed, as well as an independent forestry service?
The signatures were collected over three months. There were 2,490,042 of them. But the Central Electoral Commission only recognized 1,800,000 of them as valid. The authorities took fright was the comment by representatives from Russian environmental organizations at a news conference today.
[Svyatoslav Zabelin, co-chairman of the Social Ecological Union] It is simply staggering how many times one take fright of our people coming to polling stations to express their opinion on issues concerning them. This is the third time now that they have been scared to death.
[Correspondent] A reason for not recognizing a signature could be any mark in a document, an
altered date, for example. A signature was considered invalid if the name of the Region was not given in the address.
[Ivan Blokov, campaign director for Russian Greenpeace] If someone writes as the address -
Syktyvkar, such-and-such street, Number such-and-such, then the address is deemed insufficient to unambiguously identify the voter. The Central Electoral Commission demands that the address should read thus - Republic of Komi, Syktyvkar, followed by the address.
[Correspondent] The environmentalists are now preparing to appeal against the Central Electoral Commission's decision in the Supreme Court. But they are concerned that the procedures could be dragged out and meanwhile the decision to bring radioactive waste into our country could be taken without the participation of the public.
[Askhat Kayumov, co-chairman of the Social Ecological Union] I have held in my hands documents, for example, showing that the Atomic Energy Ministry has already concluded an agreement with a shipyard in Nizhniy Novgorod Region for the production of an amazing number of containers for moving radioactive waste. There has been no decision yet to bring such waste into the country, but the containers have already been ordered.
[Correspondent] The coordinator of the Russian Greenpeace campaigns, Ivan Blokov, has learnt
that Swiss firms are continuing talks with the Atomic Energy Ministry on storing their radioactive waste in Russia.
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