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Welcome
to the English-language site for the Anti-Nuclear Resistance
Campaign.
This site is constantly being updated to keep up with events. Among other
things, We have updated our appeal, which we now ask you to fax to the
Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament.
Latest
Developments:
Wednesday, June 27, 2001
On June 29, Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, will examine the “nuclear packet”—or Min-Atom’s plan to import spent
nuclear fuel. Officially the session was moved forward from its original
date of July 4 because of the Duma’s decision to extend its spring session and in order to ensure “more even work on the part of the
Federation Council.” If the Federation Council passes this legislation, all that remains for the legalization of Min-Atom’s plan is the
President’s signature.
Friday, June 15
The Federation Council this week announced that they will examine the nuclear
packet on July 4. Russia's greens are preparing various activities across the
country to convince the Federation Council to reject these bills.
Wednesday, June 6
With a solid majority, the Russian Duma today passed in its third and final
reading the three bills which will allow the Russian government to import spent
nuclear fuel for storage and reprocessing. After initially setting June 7 as the
date for the third reading, the Duma, in the face of expected street protests,
switched the date to June 6. The "nuclear packet," as it is often
referred to, now goes to the upper house of Russia's parliament, the Federation
Council, where according to Speaker Yegor Stroev, it will face more resistance
than in the Duma.
Tuesday,
May 15
The State Duma has set June 7 as the date for the third reading of
the nuclear packet. According to Russian parliamentary practice, the first two
readings tend to be more decisive and where most debate takes place. It is
therefore widely expected that the nuclear packet will pass in the third
reading, after which the matter will be taken up by the Federation Council, the
upper house of Russia's Federal Assembly which is composed of representatives
selected by the legislative and executive organs of the regions. Since many
regional governors and legislatures have expressed their opposition to the
nuclear packet, it is expected that MinAtom's project will meet with stiffer
resistance there.
Wednesday, April 18
With 244 deputies voting for and 114 against, the Duma today
passed in its second reading the "nuclear packet"--the three bills
proposed by the Ministry of Atomic Energy that allow the import of spent nuclear
fuel for storage and reprocessing into the Russian Federation. The date for the
third and final examination of these bills has yet to be announced.
Tuesday, April
10
At
today's (April 10th) parliamentary hearing, the Duma postponed (for the third
time), until April 18, the second vote on the "nuclear
packet"--the one bill and two amendments that will allow the import into
the Russian Federation of spent nuclear fuel for storage and reprocessing. Unfortunately,
these endless postponements, as well as the recent dismissal of Minister of
Atomic Energy Evgenny Adamov, in no way mean that this project is losing support
in the Russian political establishment. Instead, today's hearing only showed
that the Duma will likely approve these measures whenever they finally get
around to voting on them.
Tuesday,
March
27
After weeks of enduring allegations of corruption and mismanagement, Minister of
Atomic Energy Evgenny Adamov, author and chief proponent of the Russian
government plan to import spent nuclear fuel into Russia, resigned "by his
own desire." Russia's environmentalists attach little significance to this
development, instead considering it a prudent move on the part of the government
supporters of the plan, for whom the controversial Adamov had become an annoying
lightening rod of opposition.
The
Anti-Nuclear Resistance is a
campaign of environmental and other non-profit organizations fighting to prevent
the import of nuclear waste into Russia. Over 100 organizations from 40 cities
across Russia and the world have already taken part in this campaign by: writing
appeals and sending petitions to legislatures at both the local and national
level, and to the President of the Russian Federation, V. V. Putin; organizing
and participating in protests in their respective cities; and otherwise
pressuring local governments to protest the actions of both the Ministry of Atomic
Energy and the State Duma, the latter of which has already twice approved a packet
of bills that will allow the importation of spent nuclear fuel. At this site,
you will find information about this issue and campaign, as well as a text in
English of our appeal asking the State Duma of the Russian Federation to
reconsider their support for the importation of nuclear waste.
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